These were photos taken at my high school (Chau van Tiep) reunion held at China Feast restaurant on Saturday, January 15, 2011.
The Vietnamese school system did not include middle school or junior high, so I entered Chau van Tiep right after graduating from elementary school and passing my high school entrance exam (in Vietnam, admission to public high schools was not automatic). I attended CVT through the 9th grade, when I left my country at the end of April, 1975, when the communists overtook South Vietnam.
Chau van Tiep was a small high school in the sleepy town of Phuoc Tuy (also called Ba Ria) at the capital's outskirt that bordered the more well-known beach town Vung Tau.
My mom taught at the school for several years and my dad was the province's medical chief of staff, so our roots in this town ran deep.
I didn't know many of the people attending this year's reunion; most were from a class at least 7 years before mine. However, we did run into a family that had long-standing associations with us. The father (now deceased) was the town's Postmaster when we were living in Phuoc Tuy; and the family's matriarch was a close friend of my mom's. When I was a child, we used to always visit them on occasions like the Mid-autumn Moon Festival and the Lunar New Year, when I was given beautiful Chinese lanterns and lucky money envelopes from our sweet hosts.
I didn't know many of the people attending this year's reunion; most were from a class at least 7 years before mine. However, we did run into a family that had long-standing associations with us. The father (now deceased) was the town's Postmaster when we were living in Phuoc Tuy; and the family's matriarch was a close friend of my mom's. When I was a child, we used to always visit them on occasions like the Mid-autumn Moon Festival and the Lunar New Year, when I was given beautiful Chinese lanterns and lucky money envelopes from our sweet hosts.
We were thrilled to be able to recruit a few non-Vietnamese teens (friends of Audrey's and Natasha's) to wear ao dai's and participate in our fashion show, essentially a repeat performance following the success of last year's program. They were: Laura Licata, Ellen Colvin, and the sisters Amanda, Ariel, and Madison Hayag. The rest were our family's home-grown models, plus the kids' cousins. Lauren happened to miss this year's show because she already had plans to attend her friend Shane's Bar Mitzvah, but my niece Gisele got to participate for the first time and became the youngest ao-dai wearing attendee at the event.
Monique
Natasha
Laura
Michelle
Amanda
Natasha & Madison
Nina
Mommy & Baby models (Hanh & Gisele)
Gisele got super excited watching her cousins do the catwalk
Doca's family
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