Catch Up Time

During my mother's recent visit to Vietnam, one night during dinner the conversation turned to my blog, particularly how there hasn't been an update in awhile, or to be more exact, nearly two months. This is embarrassing, particularly as I have sent people dozens of assurances since the last post, promising an update coming in a day, by the end of a week, in an hour. This could be seen as procrastination or failure, but as my mother so kindly pointed out to me I'm the kind of person that needs a deadline. Therefore keeping in the spirit of New Year's resolutions, I've decided that my New Year's Resolution will be to update the blog at least once a week. We'll see if this happens, but we all know I'm pretty stubborn, so I think it should work for at least a little while.

But now to play catch up. The past two months have been both wonderful and busy. Not so much with teaching, but with traveling and celebrating. I went to Thailand with some friends for a week, experienced the crazy culture of Bangkok, motorbiked over an island in the south (don't worry I was always a passenger); I celebrated Thanksgiving and my birthday Saigon style; my mother and Alice came to visit where we traveled up the coast of Vietnam and over to Cambodia to see the Temples of Angkor Wat where we took a million cooking classes, met some great people, and saw some beautiful scenery; I celebrated an expat Christmas in Vietnam; I have gotten in a motorcycle accident on the back of one of my xe om's (Mr. Seven's) bike; and I've gotten two motorcycle burns on my right leg, which are now, thankfully, fading to light pink, circular scars. There are a myriad of stories that go along with these adventures, but since I don't want this blog to be fifty pages long I've decided to narrate with pictures.

Thailand

Getting Fresh Pad Thai made in Bangkok for less than a dollar. Delicious and fresh. Definitely a reason to go back to Thailand.

Visiting the Grand Palace in Bangkok. These monks were kind to let me get a picture with them. We weren't allowed to touch them, and we might have been to close to them, for when women came to take pictures after us, all the women had to sit on the ground in front of them, at least a meter away. Oops.

Hanging out on the beach with the locals who worked at the restaurant where we ate. Our first stop after Bangkok. We left the next day and took a ferry to Koh Samui.

Getting ready to get on a motorbike to find a place to stay for the night.

The market where we ate most of our meals. Unbelievable food- curry, banana pancakes, spring rolls... So cheap.

The beach bungalows where we stayed.

One of the many beaches on the island.

Delicious squid dinners.

A summit view of the island, we followed very steep, rocky, dirt roads to arrive.

The nice proprietor of the establishment cut me a flower from his garden while we enjoyed the view and a beer after a grueling motorcycle ride up the steep hills.

An example of the roads. I might have gotten us lost on the way down...

Thanksgiving and My Birthday

We had planned on ordering pizza, but my housemate Greg, ended up being so great and getting Thanksgiving dinner from a restaurant in town for us and some friends. Who knew, turkey in Vietnam?

On my birthday, I discovered this lake about an hour outside the city where I had a picnic and swam. So beautiful!

Birthday party on the roof.

Alice and Mom's Visit

Their first night in town, trying out some Vietnamese dishes.

Alice, our little, picky eater, doesn't look too thrilled with eating a whole fish while we were touring the Mekong Delta.

River Cruise on the Mekong.

A view of Yaley Fashion house in Hoi An. We spent most of our time here getting clothes tailor made. My mother is already planning how she can get back there.

Biking in the countryside outside Hoi An.

Some typical scenes of the country.

Dressing up like a farmer.

First cooking class of our trip.

Learning the ways of the land. We discovered that farming is much harder than it looks.

Hoi An lunch.

Bargaining for pearls with these nice ladies. They were nice enough to pretend to be impressed with the little Vietnamese that I know. My hat courtesy of the woman to my right who thought I would look better with it on in the picture.

With out guide Anh, who insisted that we try on these hats and take pictures, much to my mother's chagrin, who kept insisting that yellow was NOT her color.

Cyclo tour of Hue.

Again, dressed up by the insistence of Anh at a royal dinner. This time my mother put her foot down and was allowed to wear the red dress.

Cyclo tour of Hanoi.

With our culinary expert exploring the markets of Hanoi.

Tea and fruit break during out bike ride outside of Hanoi. This nice family invited us into their home, cut up all the fruit in their house, even going so far as to pick fresh bananas for us.

Then they asked us to have lunch with them. The woman in purple even offered to kill us a chicken if we stayed for lunch.

Having tea with the lady who sold us ceramics after another successful bargain. She is one of ten sisters, who all work at the store her father and uncle own outside of Hanoi.

Halong Bay.

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Touring a floating village in Halong Bay.

Alice, so kindly told our rower that I would love to try my hand at rowing. As you can probably tell, I wasn't successful at all, which was disheartening when four year olds were out playing on the water in their very own row boats.

Said four year olds playing before dinner. Look at their skill.

In Siem Riep, Cambodia taking an elephant ride. This was the highlight for Alice.

On the elephant ride.

Feeding the elephant a bunch of bananas.

Balloon ride to see the temples.

Receiving a blessing from the monks.

Christmas in Vietnam

I wasn't expecting a big deal to be made about Christmas here, and how wrong I was. Stores went all out with decorations, lights, and music, even before Thanksgiving. Santa even came to visit my classes. Everyone wore santa hats. We even had school off. And there were more lights here than I have seen anywhere.

Families dressed up to get their picture taken next to the festive trees that lined the streets.

Some of the lights downtown.

Decorated palm trees.

Gift exchange at our house on Christmas Eve.

Housemate picture.

Our tree, courtesy of Elizabeth.

Christmas lunch.

Sunday after Christmas I went to the orphanage with a friend to assist her in an English lesson. The kids were amazing. Check out the video below of them singing Christmas songs!