ST PAUL, Minn. — Starting a new job is life changing enough... but try doing it in a community you once called home, a place where your family is.
That's the scenario for new KARE 11 Sunrise anchor Gia Vang, a native of the Twin Cities and specifically, St. Paul.
We figured a good way to get to know what makes Gia tick is to meet the people who know her best, which brought Ms. Vang and a photo crew to King Asian Thai Cuisine on University Avenue, the first restaurant her dad took her to when Gia came to visit the Twin Cities years ago.
"We moved up here very much late 2011, November 20," Tsong Tong Vang recalled. "Pollution here is much much less than California," he added, something Gia says her dad always mentions when talking about the difference between Minnesota and California. "It’s much much cleaner. No pollution."
Gia is one of ten kids in her nuclear family... seven girls three boys. And then my dad remarried, creating an even bigger family, and moved to St. Paul.
"What do you guys think about the winters here?" Gia asked her dad. "Since we used to it already now. Not too hard, we know how to stay and how to live."
"Dad, what do you think about me coming to live here and working for KARE 11?" she inquired. "That’s like a dream right?," he mused. "A dream. It’s a very good opportunity to have such a large Hmong community here, that will be very helpful I think for the people of the Twin Cities here. So I think it’s very good, I’m so happy to have you here and also I’m very proud that you have your ability to do this."