We're Home!

How lovely it was to walk into our apartment in Hung Vuong 2 and feel like we were home.  It looked like home, even smelled like home.  I had prepared myself for the worst I think - that we would walk in to mold and a tremendously funky Asian smell, but we didn't.  After a 24 hour trip, we stumbled and fell into our own beds.  Hard beds, yes, but they were familiarly ours.  It is one of those moments in your life when you realize how much joy can come from being prone.

On a side note, Charles had an important discovery the other day about why all Asian beds are so %#$^&* hard.  It has to do with the teaching of Buddha.  One of his tenants is not to have a luxurious bed.  Just great.  Even a bed topper has not yet brought ours to my acceptable comfort zone.

I had a renewed realization about myself and about Vietnam as I walked home from the bookstore this evening.  I have always been on the move in my life.  The longest I have lived in one place is in one of our South Carolina homes, I think.  I am comfortable with change, even embrace it.  On the other hand, I am such a creature of comfort and habit.  When my favorite linen pants got a hole and were to the point of no return, I wanted very desperately to have the very same pair new.  And maybe two more for when those wear out.

Vietnam is NEVER the same.  I walked past no less than 10 restaurants or stores new, gone, or completely overhauled in the time we were gone. You, blog readers, have already heard too much about how you can't find the same thing at the grocery store twice. Vietnam is a place where you have to accept what's offered, to play with the hand you're dealt. 

And we are back to play our cards.

School is off to a soaring start for us.  After a week and a half, the Waugh family is a little less exhausted and settling into routines.  I am certainly enjoying being back in 5th grade, but also have a tremendously larger respect for my former amazing colleague Tim O'Keefe, who taught most of my students for two years before I taught them for two.  I strongly feel our differences in first language and cultures in our room.  But this is a plus too.  I am learning new things every day.  My students have such unique and interesting perspectives on the world that make me think, and challenge me to explain things in new ways.  It's pretty fascinating.  

My favorite quote so far is when one of my students looked at me and said "Mrs. Waugh, what is "Holy cow?"  

But I am getting ahead of myself!  I need to share our summer of adventures.  It was so great to see our family and some of our friends.  We enjoyed the ease of US living, and I gave our credit cards the hardest workout they have ever had in such a short period of time.

I can't believe that I didn't mention this first....we are no longer property owners in North  America!  Certain cause for celebration.  We can already feel the financial belt loosening.  

My Mom and Dad are as we speak moving to San Diego, and we just missed meeting our new family member, Sam, who my mom and sister picked up in China at the end of July.  Did you notice that I did not use the words calm and quiet to yet describe our trip?

We did enjoy the cool, almost cold weather at the cabin for a month.  I never knew how much fun it could be to dig out sweatshirts and sit in front of a fire in the morning with a blanket.  I savored every chilly moment.

 Here, Maeve models her chosen Halloween costume, ala movie star, on the hammock.

         

We had a great visit with my brother and his wife at the cabin.  Here he gives the girls a cozy push.

     Sophie takes her aunt's lead and looks closely at the world as she sketches in the hammock.

Reading in front of the fire.  Life is good.

     I got to reconnect with my wonderful colleagues from the Center for Inquiry in South Carolina with a surprise visit to the International Whole Language Conference there.  It was great to see people and re-immerse in the land of literacy which I missed so much.  I got to see neighbors, and say an official goodbye to our favorite little house on Trenholm Road, as we closed on our house a week after I was there.

A trip to the cabin would not be the complete without a visit to the Grayling fish hatchery, a place I have been going since I was a kid.

My sister and her daughter visited too.  Here, Maeve models birthday balloons on the celebration of my 41st.  

The girls keep talking about Mackinac Island.  It truly made an impression on them.  The fudge, of course, is foremost in their minds, but our bike ride around the island, and Fort Mackinac are  in those memory banks too.  (Charles has been reading up on making fudge.) 

      Maeve was at first so nervous about riding with Charles like this, she cried a bit.  As you can see, tears quickly gave way to all smiles.

Maeve and Aunt Lauren on the ferry to Mackinac.

Always happy when he is on a boat!

     Back at the cabin, Sophie models her favorite attire in front of the fire.

We saw SO MUCH rain in the U.S on our trip, it was almost comical. Wherever we went, it rained.  Here, sun and rain mixed.

The girls at Hartwick Pines State Park "Wood Shaving Days".  All crowds were noticeably smaller in a place that is usually pretty crowded in the summer.  I think many people have given up summer travel in the hard economic times. 

At the logging museum.

Back at our favorite place, the dock.  Sophie checks the minnow trap.

Nature Girl, with dragonfly.

Family walk on K.P Trail

Junie B. Jones in the hammock.  (Our summer ride in the background.)

      The BIG pack.  We took up every ounce of our potential 400 pds.  Charles' CAPITALISM book weighed the most.  It was my job to give him a hard time about it.  I feel like a rich woman with all of the supplies that fill our cupboard and closets.

Picking flowers for Grandma.

Grandpa's treat - pony rides!

      Charles wanted to ensure that he had a humongous American breakfast on one of his last mornings.  Dad's favorite New Jersey diner came through.

Our flight home, although SO long (24hours total), was our best yet.  No bodily fluid incidents - a first!  We left Newark without boarding passes for the last leg of our flight - Tapei to Ho Chi Minh.  We were met in the hallway in Tapei, asked if we were the Waughs, given first class seats for our last leg (!) and walked onto the plane which had just started boarding.  Yahoo EVA airlines!  At that point both girls had big fat colds and hacking coughs. I braced for the worst as we came to HCMC.  I had heard about how they were taking temperatures at the airport because of the swine flu and we had to fill out health reports for each of us with immigration forms.  

We had no fevers, however, and when we did not show red in the ultra cool crowd temperature radar, we got right through.  We were home within 45 minutes.  : )

H1N1 is indeed in HCMC, and has shut down a few schools - not ours yet.  We have a new uber hand washing policy and hand gel available throughout the school.  All kids under 2nd grade have their temperatures taken before they go to class in the morning.  This may be a very good thing for all of our health this year!

Maeve was a seasoned pro as she started first grade this year.  She still loves school and has another great teacher this year.

   Sophie has entered another whole part of her life.  She loves school too, and has a huge new cache of things to talk about at the dinner table. (Her least favorite part - like her sister last year - rest time!) Charles talks about how Sophie gets her temperature taken and quickly says "Bye Dad." with a kiss in the morning.  He's not allowed to stay.

We have a lovely new house helper, Thuy, sister of Trang who helped us last year.  She is here 20 hours a week and wow is this apartment ever clean every day when we get home.  Definitely a plus.

And our life moves on in a foreign place, that is not so foreign any more.  There are still moments when I wonder why we left the comfort and ease of living in the States, especially those moments when it seems like everything is difficult and nothing works, or the gecko who has decided our bedroom drapes are home and keeps coming back even though we keep letting him outside is making his gecko mating sound at 2AM.

But life is certainly not boring, and my daughters cry "I want to go to the Japanese restaurant!", and one talked about missing Com Suon (grilled pork over rice) this summer and likes it only from her local place, and thank yous in our house come in all languages.  

Tam Biet for now. Don't be a stranger.