Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Superman

(PICTURE: Viet Hoang with Superman)

Last week was Huyen's nephew's birthday. Huyen had to work so I drove out to her sister's house by myself. I asked Huyen what gift to get and she told me that her nephew, "likes Superman."

In Hanoi there is a street which just sells toys. I went to the street and started scouting out Superman dolls. All the toys were clear knock-offs from China. After going to four stores I found a giant Superman figure that came with a light saber. Why a light saber? I don't know.

Upon arriving at Huyen's sister's house I gave her nephew his present. He looked at the Superman figure as if he had never seen Superman in his life. I said to her sister that, "Huyen told me Viet Hoang like Superman." Huyen's sister said, "Yes he loves Superman." She then pointed at a bunch of figures on a desk. Not one of the figures was Superman. They were all robots or other action figures. Apparently this was a lost in translation moment. Viet Hoang doesn't like Superman. He likes super men.
(PICTURE: Viet Hoang with a real life Super Man, Huyen's dad.)

Viet Hoang left Superman in the box for a couple of hours and proceeded to only play with the light saber...which turned out to be the most annoying present ever. It made this really loud noise when you hit the trigger. Viet Hoan spent the next three hours hitting people with the light saber while simultaneously giving us all a headache with the annoying noise.