Gifts

Both Tung and I still have family back in Vietnam, and it's customary to bring back gifts when we visit. I'm allowed two check-in items at a max of 50 pounds each, and already I'm beginning to wonder how I'm going to fit it all. I'm counting on my mom's list of which gifts go to which relatives--some of whom I have never met before. The items that I am somehow miraculously going to fit into my check-ins:

1. Hawaiian Host chocolates. The Vietnamese are usually impressed with a gift of chocolates, since it's quite expensive in Vietnam. Good thing we are going in the cooler season--these guys are sure to melt in the humid 90-110-degree-F average temperature in the warmer months.


2. Ferrero Rocher chocolates. See #1.


3. Value pack of Reese's, Hershey's, Crunch, and Kit-Kat. See #1.


4. Bath & Body Works body cream and shower gel. Cosmetics from the USA are especially coveted. Actually, anything with a "Made in the USA" stamp is coveted. When I was an infant, my maternal grandparents sent me Similac baby formula from the States.


5. "Classic Mix" Frito Lay's snack-size chip bags. My dad insists they'll like it. I thought cheese stank upon first coming to the U.S., but okay. It took me a few months to like Doritos' nacho-cheese chips and maybe a year before I could stomach pizza.


6. Eagle Brand menthol oil, a type of eucalyptus topical treatment for aches and pains. The Vietnamese, especially the older folks, use it for everything. Headaches, body aches, stomach aches, arthritis, to treat cuts (I'm not sure you're even supposed to apply to an open wound, by they do). I find the smell to be rather unpleasant and always associate it with elderly, sickly folks, kinda like mothballs to Americans.

The shrimp chips and freeze-dried fruits--those are just mainly for our snacking pleasure on the long flight. Tung was pretty indignant on going hungry for long ours before they managed to pass out the meals on his last flight to Vietnam, about 5 years ago.