Vietnamese New Year 2017- Year of the Rooster

On Jan 27th, we had Jame's baby, Baby Emma's 1st Birthday Party at A1.

On Jan 28th, Saturday, me and vy ran a mile at Foster and afterward we brought food to make Indian spinach shrimp dish. Around 2 Chu Dai came and around 3 Anh Phong Came.  We celebrated our first family get together at Bac Vinh's house and we had pho. 

Towards the end of the night, Anh phong, mom, and vy, we all went to go watch a movie while Ba stayed back at Bac Vnh's house. 

We watched " A Dog's Purpose ", and I probably have cried 3 times throughout the movie. 

On Sunday, which was usually the day we celebrated Tet, we had mass at 10 and Vy Didn't go with me so stayed back and went with Anh Phong and our parents. But of course there was a celebration after mass but me and Bac Nghi didn't stay long. 

Once we got home, we went to go eat with Anh Phong at Sushi Axiom and right afterward, we went to Verizon to get a new phone! Finally, she will be able to facetime!!!

The Lunar New year celebration at the house didn't start till around 5. It didn't feel like it was that much more people this year even though we had my brother and Anh An from Alabama this year. 

When it was time to pass out the red Li Xi, it was getting quite emotional. For those who don't know the tradition of te passing of Li Xi, you have to wish your elders good luck in order to get the red lucky envelopes. 

In our family, you HAVE to speak Vietnamese in order to receive the envelopes. Tradition is you are supposed to go to the oldest member of the family, which is our grandma who turned 93! And you start out youngest to oldest of the "children"  taking turns speaking to our elders in order to get our envelopes. 

When we were giving our blessings to our grandma, we noticed she was tearing up! It was a very meaninful moment because the fact that she was actually listening to all of us and that it still cared and it was nice to see her show her feelings. 

Fall 2017 Semester at UTD

This semester has been a lot better than my first two semesters at UTD. I am a lot happier and I am more mentally and physically healthier. I am not getting sick as often or at all and my weight is actually stable now. I joined MMA and within a few months, I made a great friend!

My classes are slowly getting into the Mechanical Engineering courses. I have not mentioned why I decided to do Mechanical Engineering, honestly because I did not fully figure out why until this summer. I knew I did not want to do Petroleum Engineering anymore because I wanted a cleaner alternative to fuel and I did not see myself staying in that profession because I truly believe there is a better fuel out there. With my degree, I plan to work within the renewable energy field, rather that be solar, wind, miscanthus, biofuel, or even wave energy. I believe there is a better cleaner way to energy and fuels in the United States. The challenges of cost efficiency and its institutional barriers and much more; and I have a passion to take part of all its challenges to push forward renewable energy in this country.

I still have that feeling of distress about graduating late and I tell myself over and over again that it does not matter how long it takes to graduate and that's why I hate celebrating my birthday because I should be graduating by now. The reason I feel this way because I know my parents are aging as well and I honestly hate being away from them and to keep going back to UTD semester after a semester when I should be graduating this year, which disappoints me. I want to be able to get a stable job and support them. I want my parents to be there to experience my life as much as they can, and that's why I unmeaningly put pressure on myself to graduate soon. I want to be able to financially support them ASAP, have them attend my wedding, enjoy their grandkids, etc. I'm not saying I do not believe in their health, but I guess I just worry too much.
And I hope this pressure I put on myself goes away, but at the same time, it pushes me to do better in school.

It's been a whole year being at UTD now and I am training to be a lifeguard at UTD through American Red Cross as a part-time job. Oh boy, the pre-requisites to be a lifeguard are swim 300 m continuously,  tread water without your hands/ arms for two minutes, and finally starting at the 20m swim to the other side of the pool and dive 10 ft under to retrieve a 10 lb and swim back with both hands on the object. My first attempt I failed miserably thinking to retrieve that 10 lb would be easy. At first, my lifeguarding instructor threw the 10 lb brick (which is equivalent to 100 lb from when I am underwater holding it up) in 17ft deep water because the SMU students were using the other pool, so we had to use the diving pool!! I barely went under 10 ft before I lost my breath, nevertheless swim down the whole 17 ft. and bring up the 10 lb brick!! I was about to need a lifeguard of my own that day! Even if I did pass the pre-requisites, I had to successfully bring out an almost 200 lb man out on a backboard from the deep water by myself.

And with Avery, that adorable cuddly grey fella? He just turned one and my parents have really grown to like him a lot. I actually have not brought him up to Dallas except once this school year because I decided he would make my parents happier at home. Something for my mom to look forward to coming home from work and someone to cutely annoy my dad during the day. He entertains both my mom and dad with his silly self. Tripping on the carpet because he runs so fast or bouncing around the house trying to catch a fly or when he sleeps in his weird cat positions.

Fall 2017
Theresa Tran

Stay Tuned for more updates this semester :]