#26: My new friends in New York

Posted: April 4, 2009 
Filed under: People
Tagged: friends, People
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Guess what, this is the third time I am back to New York. I have lost all of my old friends here.  So I will have to start making new ones all over again.

I am about to tell you a very interesting memory of mine, about thing called: “Friend”.

The first time I was here, I was a shy little girl, very shy, you can’t imagine how shy I was, so I had very few friends, and they were totally out of sight and touch when I was back to Vietnam some years later. Ah no hold on, there was one, a Chinese girl, her name is Ting Fu, a name I would remember for the rest of my life. She was my best friend at that time, what I remembered about her was a tall, big Chinese girl (twice my size and height) and she has a round cute face. We are same age but by the time I was not even ready for a bra, she already had a Spanish boyfriend. One day she called me: “Hey, you know what, I was naked and he was too, we saw eachother’s everything!”.

Email was the only contact when I was back to Vietnam, and we had emailed for several years, until I was back to NY for the second time. This time I was going to be there for one year. I tried to recontact her and we met. She was still the same, that round face and big size.  In fact she was the only remaining friend I had there, I was lonely as well. So let say, I was lonely and she was everything to me! This time she had a Middle Eastearn boyfriend, a good looking guy (but swear to god not my type)! I met him several times at her mother’s liquor store, he was there learning and helping her family to sell liquor. Well, still, I was so much immature than her, things were so simple in my thoughts. So here came “terrified days” of my life!

I asked them if they could look for me a part time job so I can earn some little money while I was doing nothing at home and it was boring as well. “Them” included her boyfriend.  And her boyfriend asked me for my phone number, in case he if he finds a place he would give ma call. And I asked for his phone too.  That was it! I thought it was not a big deal, well, but it was, really really BIG!

And I was waited and waited for their help but no response.  Until one day I tried to call Ting but she did not pick up the phone. So, well, I called her boyfriend to ask if she was with him and to remind him of the job. He said he had not found a place yet. I said, well, ok. That was the only time I called him, and of course he never gave me any other calls.

But then I tried to call her over and over, for some hangouts, I was so lonely, she never picked up the phone. There was one time a person picked up a phone and said she was in the bathroom. And another time I called the liquor store, I heard her voice on the phone but immediately she hung up! Some days later, I called again,  it was her mother who took the phone and said she was not there.

I felt like something was not so right here. Hell in my mind, I would never thought that would relate to the call I gave her boyfriend, can you imagine that would make her mad about me this seriously? So I came to her mother’s store, and the mother received me quite cold, I was startled. Finally, she said: “How come you dare to call her boyfriend’s number? How dare you? It is her boyfriend?”. I was really shocked and embarrassed, now it was really the reason!  I told her that I called him only one time to ask for Ting and for the job, and I thought it was not a big deal.  I could not imagine she took that seriously. We had a long time friendship as well, and she wanted to ruin it that so simple! I was sad and shocked. That had been the biggest shock of my life time til that time.

There was another Chinese girl I knew, she was my childhood friend too, and we were reconnected earlier through Ting though did not keep in touch very often.  Her name is Yi Chow, I wrote an email to Chow and told her what happened, also said I was shocked. Then she replied, she said Ting was over reacted, and something was not so right with her. She had been changed radically since I was back to Vietnam, she was no longer Ting Fu of before. And Chow said she would never behaved like that ever.  I was sympathized a bit that it was not my fault at all. And I decided I would never see Ting again!

One day I met her by chance on a subway train. She saw me coldly, I just said Hi and said I found a job, thanks for all the help she did to me (what help anyway?). She just gave me cold smile! And we never saw each other again!

Remembering about those times now makes me laugh. I was really immature, and shy, lonely. I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere, I had nothing, I could not have a friend, I was not communicated with people around me! I was lacked of confidence seriously!

I have been very carefully with anybody’s boyfriend ever then. What happened had been an obsession to me!

And this time, this third time, things have been changed differently. Totally different. I am back here again, but I am very confident, I have SOMETHING to be proud of, and sure, I know what I would do here, I have my goal. I am mature now, and no less than others!

Still, this third time, I had had very few friends as I came here, but I have had easy time to have new ones now, and what’s the big change? Some MADE friends with me! That is the change.

And I know how to find good ones and behave with them as well. Here are some of my new friends, just know them for fun first, they can not friends – friends like who I am having in Vietnam. But at least, I am not lonely now!

So here are some photos of my some new friends

The photos were taken somewhere in Queens, where closes to the big bridge ( I don't remember the bridge's name), it has a great view of Manhattan looking from this side of the river.

Her name is Thuc Anh, I was surprised to learn she is one year older than me, because she looks much younger than her age. I love her nose and smile, she was so lovely and friendly. Thuc Anh is a student from Boston!

Her name is Uyen. Well, honesty, I did not pay attention to her well, I thought she was unfriendly with that cold appearance (if she does not smile). She has been here so long and we would probably have culture crash ( so we could hardly talk). That day, while others were busy looking for the restroom, I was talking to her and learnt she was not as I thought; she is quite smart and friendly. She loves photography as well so at least we had something in common to talk about. Later, I tagged her photos on my facebook and we chatted on fb for sometimes. I was surprised that she knows some of the singers in Vietnam like Ngoc Khue (who she mentioned her favorite singer). I thought an oversea Vietnamese like her would have very limited information about singers like Ngoc Khue. And I fell in love with her as she said, she liked my photos so much and she wanted to help me to look for freelance photography jobs.

And her Vietnamese is good! That's what I like about her!

Here is the girl at the first photo. Her name is Hannah Nguyen, I don't know much about her. But my impression of her is her photogenic look, and she really knows how to pose, whatever angles would make her a nice picture. She is long time friend of Uyen and a newly married bride. Well, what I could say about her is that she is a good model!

My photography teacher said he likes my 70's color tone pretty much, hehe!

Nice pose! Just a moment! It was cold but she was willing to take off her clothes for a nice photo, ooh hoo!

Here is the funny guy whose name is Quang. He cute, good sense humor. Quang is Thuc Anh's cousin. They are both lovely, we made friends though facebook. Then he told me he has a Nikon D300, I was like: "Cool, you go boy, a real photographer!". But then he dissapointed me that he only takes photos in Auto mode, he doesn't know how to use others! But still, he has some good photos, hehe!

Here is an interesting person to talk about. Her name is MinhTu, an actress and a model. We have met several times but I have a great feeling for her, she is nice, smart and friendly. She introduced me to a friend of her, a beautiful black woman who is also a model and an actress. Soon you are going to see their photos on this blog. Cool ones for sure!

These were taken when I came to help her out for an acting rehearsal. It was in a Brooklyn park. She is acting in those pictures and guess what, I helped them as a...camera woman, hehe!

I focused on her eyes which are the focal points of her face!

While I she was acting, I gave her some shots, but then it seemed like she was disturbed by the clicking sound, she thought that it might comes into the microphone though it did not. But still, I did not take any more photos to let her concentrate on her acts. So not so many photos were taken!