The only way to find out was to leave everything in the United States and start again in Vietnam.
Pak Jason and Hoang Kieu Anh first met at the University of Pennsylvania in the fall of 2016. The young Vietnamese woman was immediately impressed by the hard-working Korean-American man. She felt like the other 150 students in their new class seemed a little lazy and were only there to get the piece of paper saying they graduated, rather than to explore their studies and work hard.
Jason and Anh met several times through a group of mutual friends, but it took them three years, until September 2019, to sit down next to each other and finally speak in person. face-to-face.
They went out together one night, but whether or not it was a real “date” is still up for debate.
Regardless, Jason said it was the first time he had met someone so nice.
“After that evening, we both had a very good impression of each other, but because of our busy study schedules, we broke up,” Jason, 24, said.
Eight months later, they met again on a group trip to New York, just before the first day of their final year of school. During the trip, Kieu Anh and Jason talked non-stop.
“Our energies were so compatible, she is like the bright sun and I am calm like the moon, so when we are together we always feel in balance,” he said.
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Jason and Kieu Anh at the start of their romance in 2019. Photo courtesy of Jason and Kieu Anh |
Kieu Anh felt that she had feelings for Jason when he suddenly announced that his mother wanted to invite the whole group to dinner.
At the meeting, when Jason’s mother and sister appeared, Anh felt her traditional Vietnamese side making her tense – it felt like the formal ceremony to be “introduced to the husband’s family.”
Two people close to Jason also quickly noticed “something fishy” going on between Jason and Kieu Anh.
The two maintained a state of “will they or won’t they” until one day, while studying, they surprised each other by organically launching into an impromptu discussion about “we.” Each partner wanted to define the nature of their relationship, and they both realized that the other did too.
They decided to become boyfriend and girlfriend, true lovers, while setting boundaries to make their lives healthy and sustainable.
The beginning of Jason and Anh’s love was filled with happiness. During the week, the young couple met at school, reviewed lessons in the library, and went out on weekends. “We wanted to create a lot of good memories from our student days before having to face the pressure of life after graduating,” Kieu Anh said.
Then Covid-19 arrived. During spring break 2020, they were informed that their school was moving to online learning. Not knowing that the pandemic was going to get worse, Kieu Anh decided to temporarily return to her boyfriend’s hometown in California.
Covid-19 has become a global pandemic. The couple completed their university studies in Jason’s house, inside which they were now both cooped up, coping with the pandemic situation. Living together, repeating the same monotonous routines and schedules day after day – sometimes tedious – made them more prone to arguments. But through these challenges, they also learned that “the language of love includes understanding and compassion.”
By the time they learned to live happily together, Kieu Anh’s visa expired and she was fired from her company. Other companies that had promised him a position also withdrew their job offers.
It was then an extremely difficult but fateful decision: Kieu Anh returned to Vietnam.
“Before, I would have been very worried when we broke up, but Jason made me believe that very soon we would reunite,” the woman said.
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Kieu Anh and Jason’s wedding ceremony in March 2023, with an elaborate floral door. Photo by Hukstudio |
The lovebirds have learned to manage a long-distance relationship. Twice a day, at midnight in Vietnam and at noon in America, they contacted each other. As soon as Kieu Anh was allowed out of her quarantine zone, Jason decided to travel to Vietnam.
By mid-2021, the United States was more open in its quarantine policy, but the Covid-19 pandemic was at its peak in Vietnam. Kieu Anh could return to the United States or travel anywhere, but Jason can come and work in Vietnam to see if he can get a good professional position in his field.
He found a job in marketing at a technology company, but it took him six months, with numerous flights between San Francisco and the Vietnamese consulate general in Washington, DC, to obtain permission to officially reside in the country.
The American set foot in his girlfriend’s hometown in mid-November 2021 after a 20-hour flight and numerous Covid-19 tests, before immediately checking into a hotel to quarantine. Because her boyfriend was still getting used to the local time zone, Kieu Anh stopped at noon every day in front of the hotel to wave and greet her lover from the street to the balcony. The couple exchanged longing glances from a distance of 10 floors.
Meanwhile, Kieu Anh was also looking for a new place to live. When Jason was released from the quarantine zone, she cooked Korean food for him all day. Jason was anxiously waiting for the medical staff to take him to Kieu Anh and retest for Covid-19 one last time. In that moment, they were able to kiss to make up for all the time they spent apart.
Jason admitted that life was difficult at first, not because of the language barrier, but because he didn’t know where he was going. Apart from his girlfriend, he didn’t know anyone else in Vietnam. Many times, when he saw Kieu Anh trying his best to help him fit in, he felt like “a burden.”
Loving it, he was determined to fit in quickly. After only a week in Vietnam, he decided to take a driving test to easily drive his girlfriend, as she didn’t know how to drive – because she was afraid of the local traffic.
When he got used to it, he often confused the local traffic laws with those of the United States. “I don’t know the language, so I don’t understand the signs. Once I was stopped by the traffic police when I was crossing the wrong way,” he said.
Jason went to work during the day and studied Vietnamese at night. A few months later, he followed Kieu Anh and settled in HCMC, because she thought this city would suit them better.
According to Jason, as Kieu Anh initially said, Vietnam offered him many opportunities to develop his career. After more than a year of working in an IT company, he ventured into the more interesting field of blockchain. Working remotely and having a close group of friends, both Vietnamese and foreign, have made her life more colorful.
In March 2023, the couple decided to have a wedding ceremony. Family and friends of the bride and groom from around the world traveled to Vietnam to celebrate. On their wedding day, they exchanged specially designed rings: in the shape of the Covid-19 virus.
The day Kieu Anh dreamed of has finally come true. His love was not only pure attraction, but also an unbreakable bond. It was a 7,649 mile journey that Jason traveled to reach her.
“I think it was a very courageous decision, and also a big sacrifice of love, especially for a man born in America who knows nothing about Vietnam,” Kieu Anh said.
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The bride and groom, alongside the groom’s sister, exchange vows at their wedding in June 2023. Photo by Hukstudio |
In his vows, the groom said that thanks to the love of the young Vietnamese woman, he had regained confidence. During their year in quarantine together, Jason said, Anh taught him to be thankful and thankful. She, along with her family and friends, took him in and helped him become a better person.
“Along the way, you gave me the world and now it’s my turn to give it to you 10 times over,” Jason said in his groom’s speech at the wedding.
The groom’s sister, who graduated in literature from the United States, shared that she had read all the famous love stories, but she thought nothing could compare to the story Jason and Kieu Anh wrote together.
“What could be more perfect: boy meets girl. They fall in love and build a wonderful past, present and future together,” she said.
