Last weekend, Vovinam Houston had their annual spring banquet.  This year’s event was a joint effort by Linh Son and Hoa Lu centers.

Now, before we get to the actual banquet details, let me first get this out of the way and clear up some misconceptions.  It is a bit long, but it bothers me so much that I must write it out.  Go here to read about it.  Now, on to pictures and videos by Master Thy and Assistant Instructor Huy respectively.

Linh Son’s Traditional Fan Dance

Introduction to Hoa Lu’s Hip Hop

Hoa Lu’s Hip Hop

Introduction to Linh Son’s Children’s Hip Hop

Some photos from Vien Thong Tu’s Lion Dance Team around Lunar New Year time

Saturday night was *deep breath* Baylor University’s Vietnamese Student Association’s Tet Trung Thu Banquet!  We’ll just say Baylor VSA T3 for short!  =)  So, before I get to the actual event, let me give you the low down on what happened before.

So I’m driving down that stretch of road that pasts through that small empty town and the ghost town right?  I am like 10 minutes away from Waco and a damn (excuse my language) state trooper was hiding behind a giant bush.  That was the sneakiest cop ever.  Most of the times, you can easily tell where they’re at way before you reach them (even though it might be too late).  This guy, I didn’t even see his car since he parked it way behind the trees.  I just saw him standing besides a huge tree with a radar gun when I past him up.  Then he started running back to his car.  Dude, if I had just sped up right there, he would have never caught up to me.  I drove for another mile or three before he even caught up.  Gawd…

So he comes up and says he clocked me at 91MPH!  WTH?!  I was NOT doing 91!  I’m being serious by the way.  I was going 83-84, 85 MAX!  (Yes, it’s still over the speed limit of 70, but that’s not the point…)  So that dude goes on to explain these crap to me saying, “You know most accidents happen when you’re speeding?”  Dude, don’t try to school me!!!  I just took a defensive driving course (for other stupid reasons) and I KNOW that most accidents happen during speeding, BUT it’s at NIGHT and with ALCOHOL!  So that stupid punk tried a red-herring argument (is that the right term?) on me!!!  So anyway, I get the freaking ticket.  Now, fast forward 2 days to today where I just realized that speeding tickets are fined depending on speed.  For speeding 11-20MPH over the limit, it’s around $200.  Now, if you speed 21+MPH, add another $100.  HOLD ON PUNNNKKKKK!  If I do my math correctly, my alleged 91MPH – the speed limit of 70MPH is… 21!!!  WTF!!!  And I KNOW… I KNOWWW I was not doing 91!  To make things even MORE worse, traffic condition goes into play also!  It was around 3PM Saturday and there was NO traffic on the road.  I was the ONLY car on the road and during the time I was pulled over, only 1 or 2 other cars passed by.  He put down on the report that it was MEDIUM TRAFFIC!  MEDIUM TRAFFIC MY ASSETS!  DAMN ________ TRYING SQEEZE EVERY PENNY THEY CAN GET!  I mean, I’ll take the dang ticket, just ticket me my CORRECT violation!  If only we could fight it (my gps constantly records my speed).

Okay, *deep breath again* SOOO on to the VSA Banquet.  Well… let’s just say someone made me forget about all that and so I had a great time!  Pictures can tell the story itself so ENJOY!

ONE!  Heheh =)

Being a woman really has its kicks.  Today, I went over to my nephew’s school to teach them how to lion dance for their upcoming world culture fair and talent show.  The kids were pretty cool.  One of them seem to know a lot about the difference between dragon dancing and lion dancing.

Around 5:00PM, their mom (my cousin), took them to their martial arts class and pulled me along to get a feet massage.  LOL!  So yea, once we arrived, I went in…and it was like dark and super quiet with soothing music playing.  I was giggling inside.  =)  So yea, I sat down on the comfy seat and they had this hot hot water thing to put my feet in.  I had no clue what was going to happen or what to do, so i just closed my eyes and tried to relax away…though I was very curious about what was going to happen.  Then, oh my gosh…the masseuse guy touched me… LOL!  Slowly he began working on my head!  WTH?!  He did some point pressure thing-a-ma-bob on my scalp and worked his way down to the shoulders, and arms, and fingers.  How awesome!

Then, he worked on the feet, to the calves, to the joints, and popped all the little toes.  I was trying so hard not to giggle out loud.  So after about 30  minutes of that, we moved to those little chairs that you sit with your face flat on a pad (kind of like what you see in the mall with those Asian massage guys).  Duuude, this was awesome.  He did some pressure point on my neck!  It hurt, but at the same time was totally awesome!  Again, he did every part of the body; he went from the scalp again down to back, then did my arm joints, which at first scared me since my arm pops out easily, but it felt great!  What was cool was that he also did my buttocks!!!  How crazy is that?!  LOL, a guy was touching and poking and rubbing and elbowing my butt…and I liked it!  More!  MORE!  OH YEAAA!  =)

Anyway, so yea, I think that whole session lasted about 45 minutes to an hour… Or maybe it just felt so great that it seemed that long.  Whatever the case, I’m totally hooked.  Expect me to come back every month or so!

…I’m in ecstasy!

It’s been awhile since I wrote in here.  My friends made a facebook for me and so I’ve just been logging onto that and messing around.  Plus with school and all, I haven’t really had anytime (besides Warcraft time) to write in here.

Thanksgiving this year was pretty cool.  My niece came over from California.  She’s so tall for only being in pre-k.  Pretty cute little girl!  Supposedly she has a boyfriend named Ramon.  Haha =)  So yea, for Thanksgiving, my relatives and I met at my aunt’s house.  Food was pretty good.  Turkey tasted like ham… I think it was ham!  Played Brain Age with my nephews.  Duy is good!  He’s only in 3rd grade, but after watching me lose a lot, he just took the DS from me and started whooping everyone.  =)

My church’s annual Thanksgiving Festival was a disaster this year.  Rain caused profits to not even match half of what we made last year probably.  Saturday night was completely empty.  We lion danced for the church again.  It was requested last minute and so performance was nothing comparable to what our normal ones would be like.  I helped out at the Vovinam Booth most of the times.  Making cotton candy was pretty fun!  I wanna get a machine myself now…

Black Friday I went to Best Buy when it opened to grab myself some 100pack dvds and a flash drive.  Then met up with my cousin to go to Office Depot, Toys-R-Us, and Willowbrook Mall.  Got nothing there.  Came home around 9Am then took my sister’s car out to dealership to get an oil change.  After that, along the way home, decided to drop by Lowe’s to buy one of those cool MagLite flashlights!  That’s probably the best item I got this Black Friday!  Haha =)  Serious!  It’s Awesome!

Anyway, Finals are coming up really soon.  I’m already done with my Bio Lab and Art History.  After finals tomorrow for Physics Lab, I’ll only have Bio Lecture, Physics Lecture, and Philosophy to finish.

Can’t wait until this weekend though!  Why?  CRUISE BABY!

Fort Lauderdale, Florida | Miami, Florida | Key West, Florida | Cococay, Bahamas | Nassau, Bahamas

WOOT WOOT!

So after such a long break, lion dance season is back upon us. Tet Trung Thu aka Autumn Moon Festival is approaching pretty fast. The team took a long break for personal summer vacations and what-nots.

We’re in need of more dancers and more instrument players! YOU heard me! Last year, Celestial Dragon Lion Dance Team performed for many prestigious clients such as ConocoPhillips, Southern News Group, Cy-Fair ISD, Radio Saigon Houston, etc… This year, we will be heading around Houston again as well as going up to the Woodlands and down to Galveston for special performances in September and October. If you’d like to join the group, NOW’S the chance! This is a relaxed group of friends just having fun together. No contracts, fees, etc… JUST 100% lion dancing fun!

=) This is turning into an ad. But seriously, we need a lot more people to help us out. Contact me if you have the slightest tingling to join us!

*EDIT 8/9/07 * Several performance requests have been made. We are severely lacking the manpower (or womenpower), to accomplish everything. Please help us out in any way you can! All positions (head, tail, drums, cymbals, gong, Buddha) still need major help. Tet Trung Thu is only a couple weeks away. Practices will be held on Friday and Sunday at night for the most part. If these days conflict with your schedule, other days can be done. We just need YOU!

So after Prom Night and after the ATT job interview that turned out badly, the lion dance group had a performance for Cy-Fair Independent School District’s International Festival. In the lion was Van Anh and JT. Amber did cymbals and I did drums. We’re featured on CFISD’s main website. Here’s a link and picture of it.

Friday the 13th has always been viewed as an evil day. It brings bad luck to all. I never believed in those superstitions though. However, today was interesting for me. So I’m sitting in my 2nd period class (English) and then a student assistant came in and gave a guy sitting near me a note telling him to bring his car keys. Since my classroom has huge windows that overlook that guy’s and my parking area, I looked back to try to find his car. What did I see though? Two people standing around my car… Weird. So I asked the sub if I could press the panic button to scare them. My friends were like, “DO IT!!” but when I took a closer look, those people were my AP and an Houston Police officer. Hrmmm…interesting.

So a couple minutes later, another note came for me this time telling me to bring out my car keys. Then the whole class was like…OOOOO WHAT’S HAPPENING?! So I head out there and when I reached near my car spot, the officer told me to stand back a bit while they search the other guy’s car. I looked up to my classroom window and the WHOLE class is crowded around the glass and waving to me. Haha! I couldn’t hear much of why they were searching his car.

After 15 something minutes, they released him and called me over… Here’s our conversation:

AP: What’s your name sir?
Me: Tony
AP: Tony, what?
Me: Nguyen, Tony Nguyen.
AP: Can you please point us to your car?
Me: It’s that white SUV over there. <<points>>
AP: Okay, well I am here with Officer ____(forgot his name) and he is with the Houston Police Drug Enforcement. (or something like that)
AP: On our school campus, we have random drug searches and this morning, Officer * took the drug dog around the parking lot and it lead us to your car. Therefore, we have reason to suspect that you have cocaine, marijuana, angel dust, or some type of drug in your car. May we search it?
Me: Uhhh…yea, sure.
HPD: Is there anything we should know about before I check your car? Do you have any harmful products, weapons, etc…?
Me: Ummm…I might have a sword in there. I’m a martial arts instructor and I usually carry weapons to and from the dojo.
HPD: Okay…and where would I find this sword if it is in there?
Me: Probably in the middle of the seat since it’s pretty long.
<<HPD officer opens the car, looks for the sword, doesn’t find it, looks around, and takes out an object, gives it to the AP>>
AP: Why do you have a club in your car?
<<I take a look at it and laugh>>
Me: Heheh, that’s my drumstick that I use to for my Chinese Lion Dance thing.
AP: Why do you need a club for line dancing?
Me: Oh no no, its…uhh…a Dragon Dancing thing. (Since no white know what a lion dancing is)
<<Stares at me as if I just tried to lie to him. HPD pulls out another object>>
AP: And this? A pointed club?
Me: Heheh, yea, that’s my broken gong stick. It’s made out of poor wood so it broke a couple weeks ago when we were using it.
<<HPD finds my stack of business cards for the Lion Dance team>>
HPD: His story sounds legit. <<Hands AP the cards>>
Me: Yea, I have a lion..err..dragon dance team. Take one if you like.
<<Doesn’t take one…just looks at me…>>
HPD (to AP) : He’s clean.
AP: Alright Tony. Thanks for cooperating with us. Do you still have that pass? Use it to get back into class.

Cool huh! So when I went back to class, my other friend was already there. I asked him what happened to him. He said they found a lighter that his mom uses to light her cigarette with. I told the class they thought my drum sticks were clubs even though they were not even half a foot long. Heheh, what a retarded drug dog.

So after last night’s partying, had to wake up early today to go lion dance for a Vietnamese society. They were all adults so we were paid a lot more than normal. Quan decided to tag along so that he can start to learn some stuff about lion dancing. Yep, he’s our newest member! Van Anh sang the United State’s national anthem since the Vietnamese folks didn’t know the words to it.

Before the show…giving local commuters a sneak peak.

Van Anh’s dad singing. He’s a pretty cool guy!

After waiting a long time for our food, we decided to skip out on it and drove to Chua Vietnam. Checked out their mini jong set in the back and then went into Vovinam Hoa Lu center to watch them. Only Dung (I’m thinking the older twin) and Tom were there. Tom showed us around a bit.

Took Amber back to Lo Duc for her belt testing and then we went off to Burger King! WOOT! We had 3 coupons that gave free burgers each so for $15.00, we got 3 meals + 3 burgers, AND to make it even better, the casher lady was cool enough to give us 3 more cups (since the coupons gave free burgers only, not another meal) AND gave us 2 extra fries. Dude she rocks!! We tipped her! =)

Went to Chua Linh Son afterwards and met Phuong and Long there. Talked to Phuong a bit then decided to go into the Chua. Thay TK arrived just then so I introduced him to Van Anh, Tri Anh, and Quan. Thay TK then took us back into the Vovinam training area and formally introduced us to the other old school instructors and the whole school itself. We then followed him into the Chua. Inside, they have 12 huge oil paintings of Buddha’s life. I found out that Thay TK’s old lion dance team bought all that. He sent a little postcard picture to Thailand and they did a full blown oil painting of it. Thay Thy then did the framing himself. They donated that to the temple. How cool!

After the group prayed and got their fortune, we left and called it a day. I asked Van Anh before she left to rank the order of the 3 schools. She said Hoa Lu is surely on top. Close behind them would be Linh Son. Lo Duc is last place. Heheh, I wonder why…

Well this weekend was hectic! Not sure how much we made yet. Had around 10 performances. Some notable ones were from ConocoPhillips, Cy-Falls, Our Lady of Lourdes, Cellphone Depot, and the Chinese Community New Year Festival. Here’s some pictures from the first day.

Can you say “sexy” ?

The group drinking the best tapioca in the city!

And finally, a picture of me…no I’m not conceited…I just look too good to not post it! =)