Like ice cream in the summer
Popcorn with butter
What we have should last forever
We’re perfect for each other
You make me shine as bright
As the lights in Christmas night
Take me on a flight
And make everything alright
You hold me in your embrace
All my cares you erase
Give me many memories that blaze
Ones my heart can never replace
Oh if you could see
How much you mean to me
I love you like crazy
Forever we shall be ❤
– Malina P.
A small island off the coast of Tokyo, thats actually considered Tokyo. The small island was the perfect getaway for us high schoolers after an intense year.
We got there by boat, and once on the island, we walked with all our luggage for an hour to the campsite. We set up our tents, rented some bikes, and stayed there for three days, biking around the island and visiting beaches.
The other day, my mom brought moon cakes home. They tasted terrible, as most Chinese and Vietnamese things do in Japan. We hated how we couldn’t find a single true Vietnamese restaurant in Tokyo, so my dad opened his own restaurant last summer!
The classic Vietnamese beef and noodle soup
It’s called Little Saigon Kitchen in the Ueno/Okachimachi area and my daddy’s food is the best ever! (Here’s the link: http://hitosara.com/0006008551/) Anyway it made me miss my Chinese side of the family and it got me thinking about my grandpa, and, from what I heard, how he and my mom were all about mooncakes.
If my brother and I, or anybody in the Phu family tree, go to Saigon, the people there would take good care of us without question. My grandpa, was a well respected figure in Saigon.
He once said, “Gi yao ko ka.” or “Wherever you go, go to a free country.” He fought in Chinese army during the revolution. His brother decided he hated China, and so he went and joined the Taiwanese army. To their surprise, they met at battle when his brother was about to be caught but my grandpa let him go. After his battle, on his way back home, there were villagers waiting for him telling him not to come home because the Red Army was there waiting for him. He immediately turned around and moved to Saigon, Viet Nam, now Ho Chi Minh but that’s what it was called before it became communist. There, he met my grandma and opened a restaurant. All the cooks in the other restaurants would have nobody but my grandpa cook their lamb because he was the best. He had all eight of his kids go to a private school, and on top of that, he built a public school for kids who weren’t very fortunate.
He had a huge sense of pride and knew how to make things right. During the Viet Nam war, he sent my dad and two of my uncles to America so they could help the rest of the family flee to America over time. Like them, there were many people trying to escape. My grand-uncle’s wife tricked some of these villagers by making a deal with them where if they paid her in advance, she’d hook them up with a ride out. Instead, she took all the money and escaped by herself with my grand-uncle. My grandpa repaid every last person who was played, even if some of them refused to accept the money, and he ended up broke.
He died in 1995 of lung cancer.
I haven’t had a chance to ever meet him, but I love him so much and I’m so proud of him.
Hello my friend
I have come to say
Our hearts we must mend
For our times so gay
Has come to an end
Oh how I do so wish to stay
Like the stars at night
Without you by my side
I must learn to shine bright
With glory and with pride
I will need you always
My heart will scream for you
On those cold Sundays
And Fridays, Fridays too.
I will always miss
Your laugh, your smile
As sweet as chocolate kiss
And your crazy, glitzy style
I will want you always
The comfort of your being there
Through the coming nights and days
It’ll hurt not to have you here
I will always love
From my heart and my soul
Your memories I can’t let go of
As exciting as a drum roll
So goodbye my friend
I have come to say
That this is the end
And no longer can I stay
– Malina P.
The moon shines bright
Sufficiently lighting the miles
Scum and the ghettos
Tired and distorted
Grime and the sweat
Of labour lengthy peril
Speciality aroused
Confined unknown
Hidden under a maroon veil
Floating in the deep sea
Your passage will come
To an end
– Malina P.
Young & Wanderlust 