3rd Tet away from home

Let me tell you few things about myself.

I am a Vietnamese girl, born and raised in Vietnam. I successfully made my escape from my country by marrying a Spanish man, and right now I am living in one of the coolest cities in Europe — Barcelona.

I’m just kidding. I didn’t escape from my country. We do not have war nor slavery. And no, I don’t necessarily live in the center of Barcelona, more like in a small town of five thousand people next to it, but you know, people don’t tend to know where I live so Barcelona it is.

I came here roughly two years and four months ago, but almost half of it has been the Covid-19 pandemic. Time flies. Sometimes, I think about whether we would keep surviving like this for the next 5 or 10 years. Who knows? The point is, today is the first day of Vietnamese Tet — a national holiday in Vietnam, much like Christmas or New Year Eve in Spain — and it’s my third one away from home. Hoi An is a beautiful peaceful town according to all of the travel magazines or tourism leaflet. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like I don’t see the beauty of it. Once you’ve lived in the same place for such a long time, you kinda get used to that beauty, and that beauty itself has become the new standard.

Photo by Pete Walls on Unsplash

I must admit I miss the ambient of Tet, not the exact day but the days before it. As kids, our parents would buy us new clothes, and I remember saving those in our wardrobe waiting till the official day. We would dress up and then visit our neighbors or relatives to pick up our lucky money — a tradition of which adults would give children small red or golden envelopes filled with money as a token for a celebration of the new year and age — apart from giving them our well-planned greetings first of course. I also miss my mom’s cooking which has always been the best. I miss the 30 of Tet that is the final day of the year in which I often got to watch the firework on the top floor of my house, standing on top of a tall chair.

Such special moments…

Photo by Steven Wilcox on Unsplash

It’s 6:00 pm in Spain. It’s 0:00 am in Vietnam. It’s New Year Eve. It’s Tet.

I’ve called my mom, my dad, my grandmother, my closest friend. I’m good.

Happy New Year!