Sylvie & Pon
A rolling story
- On the boat from Van Don to Co To, it took me 10 minutes to collect enough courage to ask Sylvie to lean on my shoulder to sleep. She was having serious motion sickness issue at the time.
- Apparently it was his first attempt to flirt with me.
- All of us had a lot of fun in Co To. This trip was what my sister and I had been dreaming about for so long. We got along very well. I didn't know that Pon got a crush on me during the trip already, even though I kind of suspected it when he attempted to get close B-)
- The most memorable moment was when we was walking, the night was pitch black with no electricity on the island. Suddenly a couple of dogs started barking and then all the dogs from the surrounding houses followed fiercely. Unintentionally (or not?) Sylvie jumped and held my arm real tight. That's when I knew I had a chance.
For a detailed report of the trip (in Vietnamese) click here.
Cô Tô 2009
- Pon insisted that this was the movie we were watching when we had our first kiss. I don't remember anything about the movie as I was feeling horrible after dealing with an issue regarding ex-boyfriend. However, nothing ever felt as right as that kiss.
- After a month, it was time for me to go back to Perth. Before I left, he said he loved me and gave me a set of five cards to open whenever I felt down. I didn't say I loved him back because I wasn't convinced we could overcome our own issues AND the long distance. But at the same time, we were magically connected on so many levels. So during my transit in Singapore, I thought: "To hell with it, let's do this relationship and deal with whatever comes after", and sent him an email admitting my love for him. In other words, we were already apart at the very first moment of our relationship.
- This is the first of the five cards he gave me. It made me cry so much because I was already so far away. I tried my best to open one card a month for the remaining four months before I would see him again.
- After a few weeks I was getting crazy. The long distance thing was so hard, I could do everything only to see him right then. One day I thought, since he can't go to Australia because of visa problem, and me going home is too far, why don't we just meet somewhere in the middle, let's say, Singapore? To make the connection more scary, he also had the exact same idea. Over a month later, I was in Singapore, seeing my "boyfriend" for the first time. That was a trip that none of us could ever forget.
- This is also my first time going abroad. Sylvie literally broadened my world.
- He was explaining about an MS Word feature to me over Yahoo! Messenger, but as I was so low-tech, he made a picture to explain it more clearly. Totally cute and unexpected!
- Open a heart with Paint. That's exactly what he did to me. And if you don't already know, one of his online nicknames is MrPaint.
- Trust is one of the hardest things to have in a long distance relationship. But we give it to each other, just because that's how love is.
- Believe it or not, he started planning to go to Perth just a week after we first met in Co To, even before he admitted his true feelings for me. He told me the idea but I just thought it was too crazy to be true. He started saving and looking at visa policy. And somehow he made it. The plan was I came home for holiday, and we would go back to Perth together when I finished my vacation. We were supposed to fly to Singapore together, then I'd go to Perth first and he would stay for 2 days in Singapore to catch a cheaper flight. Crazy as he was, he surprised me when appearing at my door step just one day later because he secretly changed the flight at the last minute. Needless to say the 10 days he was with me in Australia was wonderful. Another secret trip that we will remember forever.
- When I arrived at her door it was Lunar New Year's Eve, and the next day was Valentine's Day. It can't be more special!
- It was March 8 2010, I went out and saw a beautiful bouquet at the door delivered to me from Vietnam. I was absolutely speechless and tearful.
- I asked a Japanese street artist in Perth to paint a picture of us based on a photo in my wallet. It was sure worth the 3 hour wait.
- One of the best birthday gifts one can possibly get. On my 20th birthday, Pon built this Pac-woman game with a map spelling out my name. Not only is it playable, it has a dual-player mode where Pacman does all the hard work for Pacwoman. You can click on the picture to play the game and read more about the story.
A modified version of PAC-MAN. Which should be named "PAC-WOMAN" I guess.
- That time I had a flu and was terribly sick. But he still visited me everyday to bring me my favourite food, or just to say silly things to cheer me up.
Vĩnh Hồ
/
- As we were both born in June, we threw a party for us and other all born-in-Juners.
- I gave him a "King for a day" badge for his birthday. He didn't think it was the best gift though B-)
- My sister, Pon and I went together on a dream trip to Bali. It was the first time that we were openly abroad together. Sometimes it feels good to be able to publish stuff on facebook, you know B-)
- I made mosaics of all the photos of the trip. Apparently I had too much time in my hands.
- Our first anniversary. He brought a Paris Gâteaux cake to my place and I took a picture of him with the cake and his infamous tongue. This set the tradition of all later anniversaries.
- Together we built a website for an online ceremony of raising the Vietnamese flag. Visit it at chaocovietnam.net.
- A major part of a long distance relationship is Skyping. We took lots of silly photos of each other during this time.
- He went to my hometown and harvested rice at my aunt's field. It was his first time on the field. He got along pretty well with my relatives because of his willingness to do pretty much anything, including swimming in a pond to catch fish.
- Second anniversary: a Paris Gâteaux cake and a big tongue. She forgot about our anniversary until I arrived with a cake! This time also marked the finish of our (first) long distance period.
- I gave him a Love book for the anniversary. July 31 was the day that my letter from Singapore was sent. In this book I kept our memories up to the moment and wrote what I thought about him.
- We went to Da Nang together with my sister and her then boyfriend (now husband).
- We went to India together for a youth camp for 2 weeks. Had a lot of good memories. It was the second time we celebrated Lunar New Year together in a foreign country.
- Agra is the city where Taj Mahal is located. Taj Mahal is the symbol of love of a king to his late wife. What a smart shirt!
- Valentine's Day, I said I wanted to have a dinner prepared by him from A to Z. He surprised me with chicken salad, pumpkin soup and spaghetti Bolognese. Coming from a guy who knew zero about cooking, that, I have to say, was pretty impressive.
- I was supposed to go to Sa Pa with my own friends, but in the middle of the 9-hour train ride, he appeared out of nowhere and took me by surprise. What makes it more surprising is that we were having a fight previously that day. He can be very stubborn but he also knows the way to my heart <3
Sa Pa
/
- We went with my family to Ha Long. On the way back, we visited Cai Rong harbour, where we took the trip to Co To island and started everything 3 years ago.
Vĩnh Hồ
/
- As a tradition, we went to the annual Rock Storm rock concert, to be wild once a year.
- At my sister's wedding. He helped out a lot, he was in fact even more helpful than me.
- I dragged him along to a baking class. He actually can be quite a good cook if he's not so lazy.
- As I visited him in HCM city for another time, he brought me to a mysterious place that I didn't get to know until we boarded the plane. It was a perfect weekend getaway. I love his surprises.
- Back to HCMC, we had a fun half day photoshoot with a photographer friend.
Notra Dame Sai Gon
/
- Many of her sayings are very remarkable, some are pretty deep. This is the first #sylviequote photo that I made.
- I went back to Finland to study for another 2 years. We started a new long distance period :(
- Who says romance dies out over the years? Every once in a while my boyfriend likes to prove otherwise.
- After almost 5 years of dating, we decided to get married (while still in the middle of a long-distance period). I designed this Save The Date but Sylvie changed it herself and posted the (uglier) version to Facebook. You can read more about the designing process on my blog.
- And a new phase is about to begin...
- We went to Luang Prabang, Laos for a pre-wedding honeymoon. My lady really enjoyed her time with the elephants, maybe even more than me :(
- Blog posts in Vietnamese can be found here.
- About a month after the wedding, she went to Helsinki (again) while I headed back to HCMC.
- We went vegetarian for a month as a trial and Sylvie wrote a blog post about the experience. There are a lot of beautiful food photos so it's definitely worth checking out!
∞
Dao Hoang Son: Cái Rồng