Gas Prices

Everything in America is BIG! We all live in our big house, drives our big car on our big highway. We have big parking lot for our big mall or shopping center to fill up our big closet. What is it costing us to drive our vehicles? On the average, I drive about 200 miles (321 kilometer) a week. It is costing me about $2.89 per gallon (3.78 liters) and it takes about 14 gallons (53 liters) to fill up my minivan, costing me about $40 in gas a week.
Because of our large family, I need the larger car. I can't wait to see a more fuel efficient large vehicle.

Hard Mattresses in Vietnam

I love my trip to Vietnam, but there was one thing I couldn't wait to get home to... my own bed and pillows. When I travel, I like to bring my own pillows. I sleep better with them. But in Vietnam, the mattress is so hard! So are the pillows. I grew up sleeping on a cot, and we also have one of those wooden bed, but that was the first 10 years of my life. The other 30+ were slept on a soft mattress with springs. I even have friends that stayed in those fancy expensive hotels in Vietnam and they said those beds are also hard. What's the deal? When is Vietnam going to make some soft mattresses?

Do your relatives give you a headache?

My mom called today to cancel our lunch date on Sunday – which is fine with me – no big deal. I was in the middle of eating lunch when she called. She wanted to know what I was eating, so I told her that I was having a sandwich and some chips. She proceeded to tell me that it doesn’t seem like I’m eating much, but it seems that I am still fat, so why don’t I try to exercise some. What the h---? Is this the Vietnamese way of making a compliment? May be that’s normal for Vietnamese people, but in America it’s considered an insult. It’s an equivalent of telling a Vietnamese person in Vietnam that they have a pretty tan.