A Trip Downtown

September 7th

We actually made a family trip downtown yesterday.  

     We started at the Ben Thanh Market.  Charles said "You go first." as I held Maeve's hand tight and tunneled through the clothing stalls of the market that were less than an arms length apart with lots of people trying to sell us absolutely everything.  Most were short of grabbing us and putting the clothes right on us so we would have to pay for them.  Fortunately, most of the market is not nearly as intense.  BEAUTIFUL fresh flower stalls including orchids all over.  It is so fun to watch the "pets" in the food market.  Crabs, snails, frogs, fish, squid all swimming and scampering before they meet the whack! of a cleaver.  : )  (Did I share about the fresh food at the grocery store?  Chicken comes in a sealed package head and all.  Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra...)

     We then had lattes at Highland coffee, the place that will rival Starbucks if it ever makes it to Vietnam.  We sat on the porch and drank - the girls ate brownies. And here are all of the things that we could have purchased from our chairs thanks to the street vendors: 

• sun glasses
• a cell phone
• a Vietnamese phrase book
• postcards
• a copy of Lonely Planet Vietnam (and I mean copy)
• balloons for the upcoming moon festival
• durian (this guy actually stopped in the middle of the street on his cyclo and smiled at us forever.  Charles offered"Does he really think that we are going to buy a durian to eat with our coffee?")
• shoe shine (despite the fact that three of us sported sandals and the other sneakers. Hmmmm.)
• fancy hair elastics
  

Sophie quickly became the best at

 hollering "No thank you!" and waving her hand in dismissal.  It was hard for Maeve because she really did want to look at everything and would have been happy to purchase all.       

     The head scratcher on our taxi ride home ...we saw a girl on the back of a scooter with a t-shirt that read " Sniffing glue doesn't keep families together."  in English.  

     Sophie and I spent the morning at the sandy bottomed pool - a pool that has a shallow section with actual sand on the bottom.  We ran into four couples from school and their kids and new Aussie friends we met at another pool last week.  It is the expat Sunday morning outing I think. Maeve nursed her first kindergarten cold at home and Charles napped after getting up, once again, at 6AM.  Last night we were at our new friends Kari and David Perkin's house.  Such fun. We swam at our the SSIS school pool Friday afternoon (which is open every afternoon, even weekends, for our use).  

     So it is clear that Sophie already has some "cultural mixing" going on.  She told an elaborate story yesterday that went something like this:  (We were making paper lanterns like the beautiful colorful light lanterns that they have hung in our apartment complex for the upcoming moon festival.  By the way, they also have moon cakes which are beautiful but which taste like a horrific version of fruitcake.  I digress...)

      So Sophie's story went something like this: We are going to hang lanterns and make a birthday cake to put near the lamp because Santa is coming with presents and we will turn out the light and when he comes in all yell surprise!  Poor kid.  At least she got the present part in there. 

     This week brought ups and downs, as the honeymoon newness of our move is over and so much is still hard because we are figuring things out and finding our way.  By the way, if you know anyone looking for a great house in Columbia, South Carolina, we are ready to bargain...

     Tam biet for now. Lots of love.