Vietnam Days

Goodbye Saigon

2011-05-07T19:34:00.000-07:00

Beautiful tropical orchids.

You can create the feeling. It's lunch time, a crazy day with no down moment, and it's finally time to eat and sit for just a few moments. I had had that kind of day and was running a little late. I grabbed a tray, and looked up at the placards announcing the day's fare...

sloppy dung,

or skewed beef.

Which would you have chosen? (I am pretty sure they meant sloppy joes and skewered beef.) I appreciate the reminders that am still in a foreign land, but I did opt for a sandwhich instead!

Other reminders I live in Vietnam? The

"Menicure"

offered on the local spa sign. Typo or no typo?

The Sunning of the Babies (Every morning the nannies take babies down to the courtyard under our window to let babies be naked in the sun.)

I had a glimpse of the Vietnam to come.... the other day a 1990 Honda Accord passed by with no less than 8 people in it. OK, you may be thinking, how is that any different than the hoards of motobikes with whole families on them? Here are the differences - it is a car. And even more significantly, it is a used car. It is one of the first used cars that I have seen on the streets - it would be fun to learn about where that car came from. Up to this point, cars have been only new, expensive, and available to only the very rich. I can only imagine what roads will look like here a year from now.

It has been an eventful few months since my last post. (OK 4+ months!) I am happiest to report that we now have awesome plans for next year. After a couple of tense months, we found out that we will be living and learning in Hong Kong! I accepted a 5th grade position at Hong Kong International School and couldn't be happier about it. The last two years I had the opportunity to be there for the Literacy Coach Asia Institute, and I am pretty sure it is the fact that I was a known entity that helped me get hired along with my whole wonderful family. With my work visa comes a visa for Charles. There are an incredible number of international schools in Hong Kong so we are hoping that Charles will find a great first teaching job too. (He is finished with course work and has only the Praxis left.) Save your pennies friends. Hong Kong is the place you want to visit us! It is quite an amazing, vibrant, East meets West city. We will probably be downsizing our living space, but will be sure to incorporate places for our friends to sleep. I am dreaming about book stores and museums and so many cultural events you have to choose. It has been so much fun to explore the internet for all there is to do and see...

International Day Beauties! Ready to represent the good ol' USA at school.

Maeve Waugh is 8! How lucky she was that Grandma was here to celebrate it with us. She looks cool with her rad new skate board, and I can't believe how big she is getting. We also hosted a small party at the local play place and at home. Our Wii system was a hit.

Happy Birthday Maeve! Beautiful new duds - thanks Grandma!

Friday afternoon birthday party.

Glimpses of teenager...

Ice cream cake in it's most purest form.

Big 8

Grandma was here to celebrate with us.

Visits from Grandma are magical no matter where you are in the world. When Mom came, we went to an uber fancy place in Danang to relax, swim, and get a few spa treatments. A surprise treat was a morning excursion to Hoi An. It is a Unesco World Heritage site that they have simply gotten right. It's a small, old village that is beautifully maintained. It is the first time I have walked into a house in Vietnam that you can tell is 100s of years old. Beautiful shops and restaurants cater to the steady stream of tourists. It was lovely.

Our ride from the airport in Danang to Fusion Maia, the resort we enjoyed, was quite the adventure. After we got in with our bags (Mom, Maeve, Sophie, and I) the driver very deliberately chose a song to play for us. The windows were rolled all of the way down. (We were sucking in the cool Danang air.) Wind Beneath My Wings was blasting so loud from the stereo that my fillings were vibrating. I looked back to see Maeve and Sophie quite unphased (explained by being used to living here). Mom and shot looks at each other, laughing a nervous "Should we ask him to turn it down?" laugh. I wasn't sure how this guy would respond if I asked him to turn it down. He seemed so proud of his music choice for us but also a little belligerent and volatile too. Thankfully his cell phone ringing made the choice for us. We were quite relieved to arrive at our destination.

I also got to take my 5th graders on an overnight trip to Cat Tien National Park. I love how familiar these trips feel to me (I am not sure I can even count how many I have been on.), even in an international setting. And I love the fact that on this overnight school trip I saw amazing, exotic things - gibbons calling in the wild and a hornbill along the river. We visited Dao Tien animal rescue center, who rescues and rehabilitates golden cheeked gibbons, silver langurs, black shanked douks, and pygmy loris. (Me too! I didn't know about any of these besides the gibbons until I learned about them from the center. They are all primates.)

Wild Ginger on the forest floor.

Looking closely at microecosystems.

Giant trees o f the tropical rainforest.

On a visit to Dao Tien we got to see Da, Lat, and their baby Hang. (Cleverly named because he holds on to his Mom from the knees down most of the time.) Da and Lat are gibbons that were rescued from a tourist attraction where they were kept in small cages and fed only milk. They mated, and had Hang soon after. (Gibbons mate for life. It is the females who have interesting "wandering" habits that keep the men in "check".) It is amazing that they are on their way to being rereleased into the wild. It was interesting to learn about the process Dao Tien goes through to rescue and rerelease primates into the wild. Because they are working to release these animals in the wild, you aren't aloud to get close to them. It is quite a different experience from zoos or other rescue centers I have been to. I was also fortunate enough to see a wild gibbon call in the early morning. Gibbons have an amazing, unique call that is unmistakeable. He was a single male, and his call was a little mournful..

If you can zoom in, you can see Hang and Lat. Hang was venturing further away from Lat than he even had before.

We also got to feed the rescued sun and moon bears at WAR, another animal rescue site. Students were invited into the play enclosure (sans bears) to hide and spread fruit and peanut butter all around the area. Then we all got to watch as the bears came and found the goods. (After we left the area and the electric fence was turned back on.) Very fun.

Moon bear finding the hidden yummies.

The student led campfire was one of those moments I treasure working in an international school. It started with a student singing a beautiful little song in Israeli, then translating it for us (a very touching song that about Moms) and continued with songs, stories, and jokes in Korean, English, and Chinese. My colleague gave a great "Toasting a marshmallow 101" lesson. Later one students walked up to another colleague after carefully roasting a marshmallow and asked "What do I do with this?" It was the first time that more than half of my students had ever roasted a marshmallow. As a matter of fact, it was the first time many of my students had hiked in the woods, been outside at night in the dark, and been away from home by themselves. It was definitely memory making in action.

If I am being realistic, I will admit that this is the last entry to Vietnam Days. Sorting, selling, packing, and the end of school will soon make my days busier than I would like. I am so interested to see what sticks about this place, what our memories will be flooded with when we think about Vietnam.

We are so excited about our move to Hong Kong. Vietnam will forever be a part of our lives, a part of our beings. It has been an interesting country to live in, and I know we are different because of our three years here.

Tam Biet Vietnam.

Chuc Mung Nam Muoi!

2011-02-03T04:05:00.000-08:00

He sits on the sidewalk in a chair with his feet thrown over the side. He looks exhausted, and savors every idle moment as he watches people walk by on the sidewalk. I see him every morning on my way to school. He manages the Thai restaurant on the corner on my way to school. But I never se him like this. He is always working, always telling people what to do, always pushing tables and chairs around. But not today. Today he sits and watches, while he wiggles his toes, smiles, and ignores everyone. Quite possibly it is the only day he has off in the year. And such is a picture of the peace of Tet.

Chuc Mung Nam Muoi! Happy New Year! We are enjoying a week of bliss in the chaos. We have a week off and the windows are open and have been all day (a rare treat). A breeze blows cool, and it is more quiet that I thought possible in Vietnam. I am savoring every moment.

Today we went down town to walk Nguyen Way, a street in the middle of the city that is fully decked out with flowers and displays solely for the opportunity for families to stroll and be together. There was a happy, calm feeling in the air. Many people get out of town for Tet because grocery stores, ok everything closes. But it is my very favorite time of year in Vietnam and I am always so glad that we are here!

I have a little catching up to do, I know. We have decided that this is our last year in Vietnam, but don't yet know where our journey will take us next. The international school world job search is a little daunting to say the least. We are trying to ride with the waves - the excitement and disappointments that join our days right now.

Here are some pics to catch you up:

The first ones (a little out of order) are Sophie's. She got a new camera for Christmas and has been having a great time exploring the life of a photographer.

Pretty Maeve.

A mom and baby in our apartment courtyard.

The courtyard at Hung Vuong 2, our apartment complex.

I love this one. A view of the sky in our apartment complex.

Sophie let one of her friends in the courtyard take this one of her.

A Christmas Skype with Grandma, Uncle Steve and Aunt Laura. It's so nice to have Skype, especially at Christmas.

A hornet's nest right in the window made some good watching for our nature girl.

Close up architecture photo of Sophie's Playmobil animal hospital. (Looks like you could really walk in...)
Right before halloween, we had a big night in tooth fairy land. Sophie lost her first, and Maeve lost one of her big front teeth in the same day. We read a book called Throw Your Tooth on the Roof about what kids do in different parts of the world when they lose a tooth. It explains the glasses in the picture that hold teeth in a glass of water. The letters were an added bonus, complete with tooth fairy portraits.
Underdog in the flesh. Halloween was fun.

My great colleague at the Halloween fair at school.

Out trick or treating with the faculty crew.

The sort. Same in every house in the world after trick or treating. Rules haven't changed...

My wonderful assistant gave these sweet dresses to the girls.

At the beginning of Christmas break, we escaped to Phu Quoc, an island off the Southwest coast of Vietnam. We stayed in a beautiful place on the beach - a little village of cottages.

It had a nice pool.

Traditional Vietnamese fishing boat.

Friends from school who stayed down the beach a ways. It was a very nice beach with great swimming. (In the Gulf of Thailand I think.)

Nature girl found a sea star in one of the shells she picked up on the beach and returned it to the surf just in time.

Beautiful sunset. (The boat you see was a permanent hut on the water, used as a home and fishing base for local fishermen.)
Beautiful Sophie.

Dinner on the beach!

The more local dinner down the beach. Crates as tables and great grilled seafood and barbecue. Delicious.

Back in Saigon, we skated! Not on ice, on wax. Way cool. I was a little nervous about how crowded it was on the ice the day we were there but quickly noticed that no one moved round very quickly. (Why would anyone know how to ice skate in Saigon?) Maeve was actually one of the more proficient skaters on the "ice" within a few minutes.
The long Christmas break ended for me at a Job recruitment fair in Bangkok. This was the beautiful river view from my window which I enjoyed with coffee in the morning. I didn't get to see too much of Bangkok, unfortunately. I did make some great connections with schools, and enjoyed talking with people in interviews. No results yet, but we are hopeful.

Charles is immersing in the world of teaching as he has started his student teaching this semester with a great economics teacher at our school. I am enjoying how much he seems to be enjoying it.

And I will update sooner next time. Be well friends.

A New Year Begins

2010-08-24T04:42:00.001-07:00

It is always a little daunting to look at the first round of credit card bills after our summer. Rental cars, hotel rooms, and an entire year's worth of shopping! I made myself feel a little better with my first trip back to my regular spa. But (yes, the masseusse's name) made it all go away! Had a mango smoothie on the way home and didn't even think about those bills for the rest of Saturday.

Yes, we are back. After a whirlwind tour of the western United States and some solid time at the place we love most, we came back to our apartment with the air conditioning on for us and the refrigerator stocked. Pleasures of life in Vietnam.

Here are my favorite quotes of the summer:

#1 - Maeve (Out of the blue, listening to the XM movie station in the rental car.)

"Why do all of the movies we watch at home in Vietnam have shadows in front of the movie and the movies here don't?"

#2 Aunt Jen (Maeve aspires to make movies some day and likes listening to the music from movies to try to envision them. That's why we listened to XM radio movie station as much as she would let us. Then she grills you about what the movie is about and tries to connect it all. One night, Aunt Jen rode home with Charles and the girls. )

"You should have warned me! I had to explain Saturday Night Fever and Flashdance."

#3 (Maeve has been voariciously reading about mythology and is hooked. We were around the campfire and Sophie tried to get her hot dog off of the cooking stick, it stuck, and then launched free onto the ground. )

Maeve, " Sophie is hot dog Artemis!!!!!"

Indeed it was a fun summer. And it zoomed by us.

Before we left, we celebrated another important milestone in the Waugh family - Sophie's 5th birthday.

Maeve and Sophie are becoming seasoned travelers! It is still a brutally long trip, but they do such a great job and sleep plenty. Here they are in the Hong Kong Airport before we boarded our flight to LAX.

We got to spend lots of time at Grandma and Grandpa's hip new pad in San Diego. I had forgotten how hard jet lag can be on kids, so it was a bit of a tough week. Mission Beach won out as the best place to go.

Balboa Park was another hit. What an amazing place! Here, Maeve contemplates a reflecting pool.

And here she takes on the stage. So shy that one.

After Charles met us a week later after his class in Bangkok, we packed up a Town and Country and drove north to Oregon. Beautiful, beautiful driving! (And a pleasure to drive after not doing it all year.)

Here is one of our highlights of the trip, Crater Lake in Oregon.

It was the first time that the girls have actually stood in snow! So funny that they had their sandals on.

Their first snowball fight was a highlight of the trip. They had cold hands and feet as we were dressed for summer, but it was worth it.

We had a visit with our dear friends in Portland, Alan and Joanie. A trip to Powell's book store and some yard saleing (can that be a verb?) on a beautiful day made it a perfect visit.

Beautiful Maeve on the Oregon Coast.

We were lucky enough to stay in yurts 3 nights at Oregon State Parks. This was out first.

Here we had a yurt a 1 minute walk from the beach. A hot chocolate sunset.

The tide pools were awesome! Maeve and Sophie explore...

A tide pool wave.

Maeve wasn't too sure about the starfish...

Stars all around.

On the way back to San Diego from Oregon, we went through the Redwoods. Amazing and humbling those trees are. They are huge!

We stayed with my Aunt Wendy in Sebastapol, CA.

Sophie got a new do when we got back to San Diego.

Finally at the cabin. Charles makin' some of his famous biscuits.

Sisters on our favorite dock.

A quick trip to Mackinac Island to get our fudge fix for the year.

Reading with newly met cousin Sam. It's amazing how much we read without screens around at all. The girls, especially, rediscovered books in new ways. : )

Grandma offering a hammock push.

Welcomes to all. We got to see EVERYONE in my family at once as we celebrated my parents 50th wedding anniversary.

Swimming with the cousins. Does it get any better than that?

A spin in the old row boat.

The entire Riley crew. It was so good to see everybody!

Sophie back in San Diego, watching with Grandpa.

A new school year is underway! Sophie is in kindergarten and Maeve is in 2nd grade. They are both off to a great start with wonderful new teachers. I have a lovely new group of 5th graders.

Our favorite babysitter brought us t-shirts from her home country of Equador.

There were so many people I intended to call when I was in the states, but it was unbelievable how fast the days went and how full they were! Warmest greetings to all of our friends out there. You are not forgotten! Hopefully I will be better this year about blog updates. Tam Biet. And don't be a stranger!

7 Candles

2010-04-03T08:31:00.000-07:00

Greetings my friends! It is certain the I will not win awards for my blogging frequency... I hope this entry will reach those of you who have long ago given up on the hope of an update!

We have weathered the holidays and the steamy Saigon winter. We have many friends here who have been through very hard times with parents, marriages, you name it. Life. It has been a doozy all around us. I am appreciative that we are healthy and well, and the tough times for those around me seem to be ebbing a bit.

As you can see, one of our new adaptations to Vietnamese life is our "whole family vehicle". We don't go far at all with all of us on it - I admit I test the shocks a bit - but zipping around on the scooter has improved Charles' quality of life in Phu My Hung.

Christmas was lovely. The first time I got to watch my beautiful daughters trim the tree and I just relaxed. We got prettier lights on the tree this year but still couldn't quite create the wonderful tree smell.

Check out all of the unique and life improving classes that happen right here in the Waugh apartment...

Proud Sophie. Life in EC4 still rocks.

Christmas vacation also brought us our first visitors! Alan and Joanie came from Oregon via Penom Penh and we had a wonderful visit. We made it downtown right before Christmas. What a scene! Thousands of people on motorbikes ride slowly through the lights in the city. It is quite spectacular.

We also went to the Cu Chi tunnels, where the Vietnamese hid in an extensive and elaborate tunnel system during the Vietnam War. Watching the video at the beginning of the tour was one of the first times I felt a little odd here. "These filthy devils dropped bombs on the Vietnamese people..." You get the idea. Seeing the actual tunnels and systems was interesting. We had a great personal guide. Sophie said "Cool booby traps. Let's see some more!" Charles fit into the small demo tunnel where you could pull the top over you and completely disappear.

Maeve eyes a tunnel. This little adventurer went an entire 100 meters underground with her dad in a tunnel made larger for tourists. Sophie, Alan, and Joanie were troopers and went the first 20 meters. I decided long before we moved to Vietnam that I would never, no way, unh-uh go in the tunnels and cheered all heartily from the surface.

We rounded out a day tour with a trip to the Cao Dai Temple, a fascinating, quiet, ethereal place. Cao Dai is a religion unique to Vietnam and is a combination of beliefs from many different religions. Maybe a little Unitarian like, although Victor Hugo is one of the worshipped in the Cao Dai religion so maybe not so much. Here's Sophie with the all seeing eye.

Alan is a wonderful photographer...

Maeve discovered that Sophie was famous at the breakfast table one morning. She was a little jealous. This ad for our school was in the local expat magazines.

We tried our hand at a little bowling. Maeve loved it. Sophie is still a little small to get the ball all of the way to the other end.

Chuc Mung Nam Muoi! Happy Tet and Lunar New Year. The biggest holiday of the year in Vietnam, many people visit temples to pray for their ancestors and ask for good fortune in the new year.Tet brought us the best fortune possible in the form of a visitor....

Grandma!!!!!!!!! We had a wonderful week with her and she got to see Vietnam at its most relaxed and beautiful.

Sophie isn't the only one around here who is flirting with fame. I got a call from a friend Richard (shown in the sound booth) on Friday night. "Would you like to dub a movie?" Well, what would you say? Of course I said sure and spent the next morning working until lunch dubbing the film that my colleague at school had already shot. Talk about difficult! Acting, but so that my words matched her lips and I sounded like she did when she acted the scenes. The movie is about an American exsoldier who returns to Vietnam to apologize for his atrocities. The producer is an older Vietnamese man who had made over 30 films. And although I cannot believe what I did was of this quality, this film is slotted to go to the Cannes film festival! You will notice that I have not released the name of this film yet. I reserve viewing rights when and if it really happens, and then I will give more info. Such opportunities are a perk of life as an expat. All things aside, it was a unique and once in a lifetime experience. I will not quit my day job.

Charles has made three trips to Tapei this year. At ten days a piece, it makes me proud of how well we have gotten on in his absense. The girls are getting more and more independent and helping more all of the time. Charles has enjoyed his trips, and is eager to complete his certification program next year. He has had a couple of classmates make their way through Saigon. It has been fun for him to meet new people from around Asia.

Lovely Miss Maeve turned 7 this week. Here she models a beautiful purse from Grandma.

For her birthday party, we invited girls from her class to join us at the spa. Here her friend gets her first ever manicure, beautiful little flowers and all.

Party friends. : ) (Taiwanese, Japanese, Dutch/Korean, and American)

Beautiful nails!

Birthday giggles.

Last week we had Learning Journeys at school. The basic idea is that it is a spring conference, but the child leads it - to show their parents what they have been doing at school and celebrating growth. We did something very similar at my last school, but the difference here is that 4-5 students take their parents through the classroom at a time. It was a unique experience, more than anything else because of the language. Kids were invited to speak with their parents in their first language. (So many parents are not as fluent as their kids in English.) At many points i the day there were four different languages being used. What was so cool was I did not know exactly what everyone was saying, but I knew what the kids were saying even when I didn't. I had helped them prepare in English. What was so wonderful is that the ease of language came back to these families in my presence. When we sit down for a conference and everything has to be translated there is little room for smiles and jokes and laughter. It is just a reality of translating. But in the room was joy, and celebration, smiles, and soft laughter. Students lead, and it taught me a great deal about what they have learned this year. It was completely delightful and one of the moments in international education I had looked forward to.

I also got to go to Sophie's learning journey. She was amazing! She had a map that guided her to all of the different stations. She is a smart little cookie and funny, funny, funny. I was impressed with what our little four year old could show us. And through all of the experience, I missed my colleagues at the Center because I thought about them so much - so many traces of their ideas and brilliance came to the surface. Maeve's learning journey is tomorrow afternoon.

Imagine if you were talking to a room of Asians, and you had to explain the word casserole. Yes casserole. I giggled at how hard it was after I read it is a book to my students and had to try to explain it. Go ahead, try it. Google image came to the rescue again. We browsed broccoli cheese casserole, and lentil casserole, and cheesy mac casserole. My students oooohed and ahhhed, and to the end looked at me like I was an alien.

Tam biet for now.

Closer To It

2009-11-27T22:19:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful for understanding family and friends who do not get fed up when they have to wait so long for a blog entry. I know, I know. Four months! It’s inexcusable. But I can add that constant activity and more than one week where computer issues kept us off the Internet add to my delinquency. I am sure that our life feels more like we actually live here and I feel less the need to update people. I feel reflective today, as we head to our friends the Perkins to celebrate Thanksgiving on Saturday because we worked on the actual day.

We have had a good fall. The girls are happy in EC4 and first grade. Maeve is reading under the covers with a flashlight at night, -a lovely step in her learning life to be an independent reader and enjoy it – and Sophie is so happy to be busy with other kids and a great Aussie teacher all day long.

Sophie and Maeve at our school's Christmas Art Bazaar in November. Clay Christmas sculptures at the Bazaar.

It was the Moon festival that marked the “Oh my gosh we have lived here for a year.” moment for me. Charles was actually gone in Taiwan for the first of his courses towards becoming certified to teach. The festival celebrates the full moon, a harvest moon, and a time that represents the end of the harvest when parents were able to spend some time with their children. Children get lanterns and there are shows and entertainment.

Charles had a great course in Taiwan with a fellow South Carolinian professor (now at the University of Pennsylvania) that impressed him. He is headed back in February with many of the same classmates. We survived for ten days without Dad (Really, in our life, the equivalent of Mom leaving for 10 days) and he brought back fantastic Asian chia pets. Maeve's cool Asian Chia Pet (a hedgehog)

I have enjoyed being back in the 5^th grade. We are now a community of learners and I feel like all of my very hard work in establishing trust and routines has really paid off. They are lovely. Chatty, but lovely. On Vietnamese Teachers Day, many brought very personal presents that made me feel appreciated and special. It is a good place to be. I am missing the idea of looping with them another year, like I did at the Center. Almost half way through the year marks the point at which I feel like things are running smoothly. Hmmm…

Mr. Viet is my fantastic classroom assistant. I have enjoyed not only having his help all of the time in the classroom, but also getting to know someone who is Vietnamese. His perspectives are unique and important to me. One day when I was working on a piece in my writers’ notebook that I wanted to share with kids to illustrate how to generate ideas fro writing, I wrote about the “way, way back” seat in my families’ 1972 Vista Cruiser. Knowing that my students would have no context whatsoever for the way, way back of a Vista Cruiser, I googled a pic. “Wow,” he said, “you must have been very, very rich.” He explained that his parents were lucky to be alive in 1972 and close to starving. “Yes,” I smiled, “we were rich beyond our dreams”.

Mr. Viet and Pentominoes

Halloween was fun, both at school and with the other faculty families. At school, our kids made up all of the games for a Halloween Carnival on our floor and we had a parade. Another faculty family hosted a Halloween party and we visited the other faculty in the neighborhood and the staged stations where people waited for us. It really felt like Halloween in an American neighborhood. Fun and familiar. (OK some of the treats were a little unusual and no one had to worry about mom making you wear your coat over your costume…)

Fantastic ESL Teacher Jo in Her Mountie Costume.

Sweet Student Manning Her Halloween Carnival Booth

Bad Hippy All That Was in My Closet Costume. My Fifth Grade Colleagues Jen, the Mountie, and Shane, the Vietnamese Cleaning Lady (Nice Pants!)

Halloween Shenanigans

In November, we hit the ground running. I went to a fantastic 5 day Literacy Coaching Asia Institute at Hong Kong International School. Really, it was some of the best professional development I have had in some time, certainly since I left the wonderful folks at the Center for Inquiry. It was inspiring and challenging to work with many of the Literacy coaches in Asia. And one of the best parts is I will have a chance to come back together with most members of the institute next year. It feels like just right work for me right now, as I think about looking towards working with teachers more than being in the classroom. Maybe not next year, but the following, I will actively seek a position that will allow me to.

Wan Chai Hong Kong Street Market

Wan Chai Street Scene

I paid a heavy baggage fee on my return– no surprise to me after the taxi driver said, “Help me!” as he tried to get my suitcase out of the trunk. Hong Kong is truly a shopper’s paradise. Most dangerous was the good English Bookstore where I spent hours browsing, and a new find, Muji, a Japanese store that reminds me of a cross between Conrans and I don’t know what. I could have dropped thousands.

It was so chilly that I had to buy a fleece and I didn’t take it off the whole time I was there. Flying to Hong Kong, going from third world to first, from 90 degrees to 50, was an interesting experience. The nonstop energy of Hong Kong could be absolutely exhausting, I would imagine. I really enjoyed a couple of “city” dinners all by myself, people watching. It was a treat in my life where I am always surrounded by people.

There are times when I forget that I live in a foreign land. But those times are often punctured by a sight or sound that reminds me in no uncertain terms that I live in Vietnam.

One morning on a walk to school I saw a funeral car which looks more like a parade float with open sides. The casket was is in the middle and family members sat on the sides, their feet dangling over, throwing paper money off of the car to represent the riches and good wishes sent with their loved one to the afterlife. In the front of the truck cab was a large framed picture of a young woman. Grief, and tears, and mourning were right there, for all to see, for all to know and take in. It wasn’t a private, discreet, and quiet funeral. It was loud and right there in the middle of an early morning street.

Vietnamese Funeral Car

I have heard people talk about how westerners are “reserved” and I now wonder about that in new ways. We would never parade though town mourning our loved ones. Doctors in offices would never joke or talk to you about life in the hallway between visiting patients, or chat with another doctor about a condition within earshot of patients.

Another afternoon, I saw a crowd gaping at an accident scene near our apartment. A man was on the ground not moving, and no one was doing anything to help him. A sweeper came by and lifted up his arm by the hand to sweep underneath him. Grisly reality right in front of me…

It strikes me that in Vietnam, people stand closer to the terrible things that happen in life and they don’t try to hide them. Mourning includes wails for all to hear. Death doesn’t get whisked away or covered up in fear of others seeing. It strikes me that in Vietnam they are closer to the realities of living, without the trappings and formalities that my life has always known. They are closer to it - the grisly, elated, never boring, tumultuous trip that is life.

We're Home!

2009-08-22T06:11:00.001-07:00

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.

Four Candles and Our First Year Ends

2009-06-13T22:38:00.001-07:00

Our little Sophie girl is four. No longer a baby, and able to stand up to her big sister in more ways than one.... We had a lovely celebration on her special day, delicious chocolate cake included thanks to our friend Bonnie. Sophie has grown so much this year, and she talks so much more than when we first arrived in Vietnam. It's hard to imagine that she was just out of diapers when we arrived.

New Lego train set, favorite sleeping friend gecko, and Viewmaster. Does it get any better than that?

Yes, indeed, strange Asian balloons... They looked cute in the package. (?)

Maeve celebrated extensively with her kindergarten class to mark her first year in school. What a successful year it was for her (and us!) He teacher was wonderful, and she had a great crew of kids to spend her days with.

Maeve reads her story at her Author's Celebration. It is a joy to see how much she is reading and writing, and how much she loves writing especially.

A proud author. : )

Maeve will miss one of her best friends Rae who is moving this summer.

One of the most different and interesting things about being in an international school setting is just how many goodbyes you have to say! Between students and colleagues, I have said more goodbyes in the last few months than in the last ten years. It is not my favorite part of this life. I feel like I just got to know people. On the elementary staff I am joining in the fall, only 10(half!) are returning. This is an especially large turnover, I understand, but in general, saying goodbye to people and moving on is "something you get used to in international schools". It sounds like often you get to cross paths with people again.

Sunday morning breakfast at the restaurant around the block.

A self portrait sculpture for Dad on Father's day.

This school year end marks the first time in my entire career that I walked out the school door with my students completely done for the summer. A little weird, but great right now for sure. My friend Kari figured out something a long time ago that I should have thought of, and encourage all of my teacher friends to consider, even if you do not live in Southeast Asia. She announced to me at the goodbye to teachers ceremony that we were going right to Zen spa for a massage as an early birthday present. I wish I would have made myself do something like this earlier in my 18 year career. I sauntered home afterwards without all of the tremendous fatigue and weepiness I have never been able to shake right at the end of a school year. Thanks Kari.

We sure are looking forward to seeing my dad in a couple of days. It is nice to have a couple of down days to relax before we leave. I am appreciating the fact that we own very little, especially in this time that I am taking stock and packing suitcases inside of suitcases for our trip to the States. It is mucho liberating. I must admit I do have my detailed lists of things to buy and bring back.

I think in one of my earlier blog entries I had a picture of a Korean baby papoosed on his mother's back. I watched him grow this year, smiled each time I walked by him and got a chubby grin. I saw him walk the other day and it struck me then. We have been here 10 and a half months! Charles and I talked over coffee this morning about not knowing what to expect about what "visiting" our home country will feel like next week. It has been a good year for sure, but not without its stresses. (Charles and Sophie were sick yet again this week. We can't seem to get out from under it. I think we need some Northern Michigan fresh air.) I am going to try to make myself do some journaling to keep track of my thoughts and ideas this summer.

What I do know is that one suitcase is packed with Vietnam souvenirs that I can't wait to pass out, we are frantic to get hugs from family and friends and catch up on their lives, and kick back on the dock on KP Lake. And I know that when we come back this foreign place just won't be quite as foreign. Friends will be happy to see us return, and there will be many, many new friends to meet. We are moving into a new Waugh family era with both girls in school and two incomes. Life feels good.

Now, if we could only sell our lovely house on Trenholm Road which is again for sale this summer. The price can't be beat, so if you know anyone who is interested please let us know.

Tam Biet from Vietnam for the last time this year. It has been one we will always remember. Thanks for reading and sharing a part of our experience.

Counting Those Last School Days...

2009-05-29T23:42:00.000-07:00

We're dusting off the suitcases. 10 school days and counting! We are nearing the end of our first year in Vietnam. The end of the school year feels much the same as it always does - it has never been my favorite time. Kids are squirrely, my patience runs short, you remember....

Quotes from the Waugh household in the last months: (No joke.)

"Maeve, what will you do in the future? " Charles

"I don't know. I have never been to the future." Maeve

"What kind of family doesn't buy their kid what they want to drink?"

Sophie, in the midst of her chocolate milk detox.

"No, I'm going with your boyfriend. I'm not going with my boyfriend

because my boyfriend is always tired." Sophie, to Maeve as they dressed

to the nines for evening "dates".

"Ooooh. I'm all messed up." Smoothing her dress,

"But I still look beautiful." Maeve, after she climbed out of the way back

of a taxi.

Charles Waugh has found a new favorite thing; fresh coconuts. He drinks at least one a day and often makes them into coconut smoothies like he is here. I had never before tasted fresh coconut milk. At the grocery store, they are readily available with the outer husk taken off, and they run about $.33.

Scraping the flesh...

Maeve and Sophie enjoy a spot of tea.

New hairdos and an evening stroll on the river.

One of the highlights of our week for Maeve and I was the all school art show at SSIS. It was so impressive! An evening opening event was so much fun. There was so much great art to see, and an auction where you could bid on student art to take home. (There was some magnificent artist created art that was beautiful as well, but a bit out of our bidding range.) I did procure a delightful little student acrylic for my new classroom. Here, Maeve checks out the kindergarten gallery.

Cool lit sculptures.

Maeve proudly displaying her new necklace that she purchased from the middle school jewelry club. It matched her dress, of course.

One of Maeve's pieces in the show, a puzzle inspired by Eric Carle's work.

High school sculpture and lanterns on the stairwell.

Maeve had a special part in the performance art part of the opening night. She got to model the art sombrero that her kindergarten class created...

along with her Chinese dragon bag with fireworks that she created.

She started the show and worked the runway....

Ms. Helen is her spectacular art teacher.

Another highlight of the week happened again at the dentist. I noticed that Maeve had a big hole in her tooth. (Ugh.) We stopped in at the dentist to make an appointment, on a Saturday (!), and she said "Come right in! Let's take a look." 20 minutes later, Maeve had a white filling, and I almost passed out when I saw the bill. 150,000 VND. Equivalence in US Dollars? Almost ten. So there are some great flights deals from the states these days - maybe you would like to schedule a medical holiday to visit us and get your dentistry done?

Maeve had yet another virus this week. (It has been quite a year for her! Hopefully next year will be better.) I had an interesting middle of the night hospital visit for a vicious UTI infection (which is now better, thank you, thanks to a follow up visit to our regular medical practice here, which is quite acceptable.) It was a moment when I was happy to be forty and not afraid to look at the doctor on duty and say, "No I am sure that I do not need painkillers via an IV."

I mentioned my new classroom above. I am officially going to 5th grade in the fall, and really happy about it! I missed it more than I ever imagined I would. I am happy for the opportunity to return.

Maeve and Sophie practice their cheetah kung fu (Don't ask me, ask Sophie.) in their ao zais.

And once again, people from Charles past continue to emerge and share priceless pictures via Facebook. (I appreciate that no one seems to have these kinds of pictures of me to share...) This one has the best blackmail potential yet. But keep them coming those of you who may have even more humbling pictures of my significant other.

Hey! We will be in NJ on the 24th of June for a week, in Michigan for a month, and back to NJ for a July 29th return to HCMC. Do let us know if our path will cross yours.

We also signed papers to put our house back on the market this week. If you know anyone who is looking for a lovely house in a phenomenal neighborhood at a great price, please don't hesitate to look it up.

Can't wait to see some of you. Coming back to the States will be fascinating and great, I think. I'm sure I'll post after Sophie's big day this week.

Tam Biet. Don't be a stranger.

It's Raining Again

2009-05-09T23:32:00.001-07:00

Get out your umbrellas because rainy season has returned to Ho Chi Minh City. Count on afternoon thunderstorms that can rattle your teeth. Honestly, I enjoy getting wet sometimes because it beats the heat, and usually before a storm there is a deliciously cooler breeze blowing. : )

People talk about how long it takes to feel like you really live some place. You know friends, daily routine, places you go. On Friday, I felt more than at any other time, that this is our neighborhood. After school I packed four girls in a taxi for a play date at Lissa's, then walked down to the dentist. Yes, it had been at least 2 years since my last visit- I wasn't looking forward to it. It turned out to be one of the most pleasant dentist experiences I have ever had. I had my teeth examined and cleaned with strait forward and honest information, ala wisdom teeth need to come out, WITHOUT the major paranoia "You better do this and we have to take lots of x-rays, and, and, and..." that I have experienced for most of my adult life with dentists. The office was clean and our new dentist spoke English well. She was trained in Japan. Charles and Sophie met me there an hour later, and Charles got the chair for the next hour, as Sophie and I walked down to play and get Maeve. (Total damage by the way...2 complete, badly needed cleanings and exams.....500,000 Dong, or $30. (!) We'll put dentist on the things that are great about Vietnam list!)

After we picked up Charles, we walked to one of our new favorite restaurants for "try something new" night. This is our newest effort to get our super picky daughters to branch out a bit. Tokyo Deli is a great Japanese restaurant, complete with the special sit on the floor on a cushion experience. Sophie has discovered she likes miso soup, udon, and seaweed. (Yes Molly, seaweed!) I am whooshed back to my exchange students days from the first miso soup swig. (I was proud of myself the other day. Maeve has a new student in her class who speaks only Japanese. I was able to say enough to her for her to smile and answer back.) Maeve was particularly taken with the Japanese restaurant experience. After enjoying only her Coke however, she explained on the way home how she would create her own restaurant and how we could all come.

"Felice Topia" restaurant welcomed people with its sign, lion logo included.

You can see the Japanese restaurant influence....

Menu:

Silly Bananas

Fruit Robot

Flower Bananas

Carrot Cube Smile

Makes you want to come to this restaurant, huh?

Can't forget the drink menu:

Water

Grape Juice

Apple Juice

Pomelo Juice

I ordered Silly Bananas of course. Wouldn't you?

Service with a smile.

Teddy drying in the morning sun. Charles and I talked this morning about how intense and unrelenting the tropical sun is. We often have to keep drapes closed in the morning/midday in order to keep the house cool. I do like having such effusive light all of the time.

Maeve shows off her budding set design talents. (Make sure you zoom in to appreciate the detail of this one...)

Sophie and Charles have been collecting seed pods and bugs. So many cool species like this one, which we do not know what it is yet. It is fun to share their discoveries after school. So many make you create new schema for seed pods because they look so different from anything you have seen before.

When Maeve's classroom turtle, Little Cutie, disappeared from the classroom, Maeve helped out with her LOST poster, posted in the pod:

Lost Turtle

She is Little Cutie

Have You Seen Her?

I am mucho happy about the reading and writing that Maeve is doing both at home and school.

Charles and Sophie wave from our first official "taste test". This time? Crackers. Both Maeve and Sophie found new ones they like. (Yes, you are on to me. More efforts for a wider palate for all.)

Happy Mother's Day! Most especially to my mom, of course, to friends who are new moms and my sister who is going to be the mom of a beautiful two year old Chinese boy very soon. I got an exquisite, written from the heart card and breakfast and coffee in bed. Top it off with bug hunting for the bug collection and mango for lunch and you have quite a respectable Mother's Day.

Gosh, almost forgot. Can you ID the hunk on the right in this picture? (Boy am I glad it's this person's friends who keep sending pictures and not mine.) An uncanny connection from my past? My new colleague here in the fall went to none other than Hopewell Valley Central High School! (My small town NJ high school.) It is a small, small world.

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

A Week Without Walls

2009-04-18T02:19:00.001-07:00

Yes, I have seen the largest Buddha in Vietnam. He is reclining, close to death. And it was awesome, even surrounded by a herd of seventh graders. It was our class trip to MuiNe, a week without walls.

We traveled to a small beach resort town called MuiNe, near a small traditional fishing village and a larger town called Phan Tiet. OK, so at first I was skeptical - a class trip in a fancy beach area where most expats head when they are ready for a beach trip, and in a fancy hotel to boot? I come from the land of challenges for kids, you know, camping, challenges, a little going without the niceties in life to build a little character. I have to admit, it was a delightful trip. I suppose going without cellphones and ipods for the week was a challenge of sorts.

The kids were great, and surprised me in so many ways. They are basically really good kids. I have very few management issues from day to day. But even those little bouts of silliness and spaz melted away in restaurants and hotel rooms, rest stops and stores. These kids are seasoned travelers. They are not two buts about it.

Phan Tiet is famous for its fish sauce, or nước mắm Phan Thiết. I wish this was a scratch and sniff blog, because you would get the full effect of these vats that hold the fist while they ferment. Yup, mmmmmmm. This is the only picture I took. Fish sauce is used liberally in Vietnamese cooking (Thai and Cambodian too.) I got to chug a capfull for fun. More about that later.

It's mango season, hurray! I just finished two as a Saturday afternoon snack. Here, they grow along the stream we visited.

Shortly after arriving at our hotel, we set out for a stroll in the "Fairy Stream". I want to go back to the bus trip first.

It took five hours to travel about 200 miles. That is, of course, because of the fact that the main highway that runs up and down the coast of Vietnam all the way from HCMC to Hanoi is a two lane road. A two lane road that is shared by buses, trucks, scooters, bikes, oxen, chickens, and small children dodging traffic. Maybe I should say that it is a three way road because most of the time the bigger busses and cars have no qualms about passing around other cars even if there are cars coming the other way. My colleague at one point asked our Vietnamese guide to tell the bus driver we were not in any hurry, which changed his aggressive passing for about an hour, then back to pell mell. My other colleague made me sit in the front bus seat because he doesn't like to. : ) I have to admit, living in Vietnam has put me in many situations where I just have to decide to relax and go with it.

The Fairy Stream was a beautiful walk in a spring fed stream through and dunes. I have never seem anything like it. Clean, cool water, white and red sand with carved limestone surrounded us. For kids (and adults!) who spend their time in a noisy, busy city, it was a purely delightful afternoon.

I couldn't complain about 6:15 AM beach duty. It was the only time we let kids swim in the ocean. The afternoon surf was very rough and choppy, and kite surfers were everywhere. We stuck to the pool after each days outings.

Here's the deck that leads to our hotel, Sunny Beach Resort, right on the beach.

There is no better place than the beach for a good group challenge. "Team building", ropes courses, and the like are a new endeavor here in Vietnam. We used a company called Embers, the only such company I think. Our guide, Dylan, was great. He explained that their main competition in corporate team building are large companies from Hong Kong who fly in teams fro the week. I think adventure stuff will grow tremendously in Vietnam in coming years. I have a couple of former camp colleagues who could make a killing.

We challenged the kids to climb Mount Ta Cu, a good 2 hour hike up giant rock formation stairs. It was hot, and challenging, and all fared well. (Except maybe my bruised big toenails from wearing covered shoes for the first time in 8 months and climbing a mountain.)

The pagoda at the top is beautiful from above, but under construction from below. It was constructed 1861 during the Nguyen Dynasty.

The Buddha was awesome. The cafe suda (iced coffee) that Dylan snuck my way as we reached this end of our 2 hour hike helped me enjoy it even more. Here's the whole crew.

Views from the cable car that took us down from Mt. Ta Cu after a great lunch at the restaurant at the top.

That same afternoon, we were down in Phan Tiet, a fishing village We had a photo scavenger hunt ala The Amazing Race, through the fish market and local museum. What fun! Encouraging 7th graders to talk with the locals and ask for pictures, objects, and advice really takes them out of their comfort zones to say the least. At the beginning, I felt that they were all hiding behind my "skirt". By the end, they performed a singing and dancing version of High School Musical Three in the middle of the fish market. And yes, there were points for taking a picture of your teacher leader chugging a capfull of fish sauce. Ewwww. But you got to do it for the team right?

All of the beautifully colored fishing boats are hand made.

I loved catching this local barber shop scene. Very Vietnamese.

Mr. Smith's group approaching a local merchant during the scavenger hunt.

At the local museum, this man makes a traditional Vietnamese basket fishing boat. It is fascinating to watch people maneuver these boats with just one paddle in the ocean.

This finished one against the wall is beautiful. Wouldn't mind taking one home for the wall...

After all of that sweaty climbing and scavenger hunting we enjoyed both of the beautiful pools at the hotel.

One of my students was happy when the guard rescued his room key from the pool gutter.

This is the ocean in the actual fishing village of MuiNe. We hiked by here to the cliffs on the ocean where the other group spent the morning repelling. The afternoon winds (amazing!) kept us from sharing the repelling thrill. (They actually called it absailing, which is what I think they call it in Australia).

Caught this in the little town - an "internet cafe". All of the local boys are playing video games I think.

The food was delicious, all the way around. On our last night we had this cook out near the beach.

...and a campfire on the beach.

I truly enjoyed MuiNe, and the chance to get to know my students outside of the classroom and our normal routine. And I admit that having my own nice hotel room was an added bonus. I slept well, which is not something that often has happened on trips with students before. I think that Waugh family may get to go back next year...

On the home front, we are slowly emerging from a nasty bug that has put us flat for weeks. We are so ready to feel really good!

Below, please find Cinderella in the Reading Week storybook character parade. Can you guess who it is?

Hope you and yours are well. Tan Biet for now.

Kids Take Pics

2009-04-05T23:37:00.000-07:00

Maeve and Sophie have a Playschool camera in which Sophie has shown a great deal of interest lately. I downloaded all 157 pictures and found some interesting and kid unique glimpses into our life here in Hung Vung 2.

Skyping with Grandma!

By the way, the corner grocery store again has Orangina and Goldfish!!!! (The edible snack kind. ) It's the simple things in life sometimes, isn't it?

We are beginning to emerge from a nasty flu bug that has swallowed us for a week and a half. Can't wait to feel well. I am off on the seventh grade trip to the beach for four nights, ready or not! I will be sure to include pictures on my return.

Be well.

Six Candles

2009-03-27T04:01:00.001-07:00

It's hard to believe that it was six years ago that Maeve Waugh came into our lives. It is so fun to see her happy, flourishing, and enjoying life. It's also a good thing that Asia has fancy dress up princess dresses even at the grocery store. Sophie had a bit of a problem with the "only presents for Maeve" idea, but I think, overall, it was a successful 6th birthday.

Part of Maeve's birthday present was a girls spa day out. We started at the nail studio where the girls got beautiful little flowers painted on their toenails. Mom treated herself to a foot massage, callus slough, and general shape up. (Almost a necessity after wearing sandals for almost a year without putting any other type of footwear on.)

Then we were off for new dos, shampoo and pampering included! It is so fun to watch these guys just eat up the salon attention. We had the run of the place, and the girls all of the attention, because we were the only ones in there. Fun. Total bill for three cuts, washes, styles, and tips? 200,00 Dong or $12.00.

My colleague and friend Bonnie is an extraordinary baker and she made Maeve a beeayoutiful birthday cake. So thoughtful! Anyone want to come over for a piece? We have some to share. : )

Our trip to Vung Tau gave us a few nights away from the hustle and bustle of HCMC. The girls are getting better and better at traveling, which is wonderful. One of my favorite memories of the trip was walking up the gazillion steps of the Jesus statue atop small mountain, happily, when Charles said to the girls "You guys are great travelers!" Maeve turned around with her sweet smile and said "I want to see the world."

Yes, you may notice that the following pictures are not mine. The definite lowlight of the trip was when I left my camera in my pocket and it must have slipped out into one of the many taxis that we took around the town. Yes...*%#$^%&!!!!! I had a good cry over that one - seeing that it was a treasured and well used gift from my colleagues at the Center. Realizing that it was worth more than two months salary of most Vietnamese and probably long gone made me have to let go of it. (Although I am still a little upset with myself...) Hardest was loosing the cool pictures form our trip. You probably also noticed that I replaced it with a not so fabulous camera, thanks to the Lotte Mart. It is Maeve's birthday after all.

We did truly enjoy our climb up to the Jesus statue. Don't pay attention to the Lonely Planet Vietnam guide (In fact we are ready to ditch the Lonely PLanet Vietnam guide because it has not served us well many times.), it was a great experience and they did not have any caged animals anywhere on site.

We took a boat like this one down the Saigon river. A little over an hour trip. It was an interesting journey. Had it not been hot, sweaty, and close inside the cabin, it would have been downright delightful.

Vung Tau is a clean, smaller beach town.

We stayed on Back Beach, at a clean and well kept hotel. Service? Well, that's another story as we are finding in Vietnam. The inconsistency is consistent. By the way, if you have mental illness of hypertension, you are not allowed to swim in the hotel pool. And, if you are an expat foreigner staying with a Vietnamese native you have to present your marriage certificate before being allowed to stay at the hotel. Very interesting. (Vung Tau is famous for its extracurricular offerings that cater to people who work the many, many oil rigs, refineries, and oil platforms that dot the oceanscape.)

Charles found some interesting sea life specimens in the ocean, like starfish and cuttle fish, and both girls enjoyed the surf. We have this little family tradition of night walks on the beach with light sticks which is always fun. We could see the stars! So beautiful, and so long since I have seen them. There is something wonderful about all falling asleep in the same room, and watching TV before bed in a hotel room. It was a good getaway.

And we were reminded of the extra challenge of traveling with small children, like the fact that I had to take at least one, if not two, little people to the bathroom after the very first bite of each and every meal, which involves communicating the word "toilet", finding it given the directions, and quickly finishing as Sophie decides she wants to go back to the table "by herself" instead of waiting for us. I often returned to a cold meal that was mediocre at best when it was hot.

We are still nursing our colds, Charles a bad back flare up, and I am wishing for another week of break. I am missing oatmeal and Orangina - two things that we could consistently buy on each visit to the store. Now that are NOWHERE to be found. It is so weird. I think that what happens is that lots or bundles of things become available and cheap for import. Vietnamese companies buy them. When it is gone, it is gone. Looking for that silver lining....who knows what we will be able to buy tomorrow? : )

Love, especially, to all of our friends' new babies I follow copiously via my friend the internet.

Sleep tight little ones.

Mangoes and Lemongrass

2009-03-22T01:31:00.000-07:00

Spring break! It is a wonderful feeling right now - everyone is either napping or having personal in room times on a Sunday afternoon and I don't have to worry about school work today. It's break, and it's glorious. This last stretch at school feels like it has been a lot of work.

We are off tomorrow for a two day jaunt to Vung Tau, a beach resort one hour's hydrofoil boat ride down the Saigon river. Hotel with a pool on the beach - that's about all we need for a getaway that we'll enjoy. I'll be sure to post pictures when we return.

It is always fun to ask my students where people are going for the break. I think by the time I saw all of my students, I found out that they were scattering to at least 12 different countries.

We also have confirmed tickets for the summer, which is a great feeling. We will be in New Jersey with my parents the third week in June, and again at the end of July. In between we will spend a month at the cabin in Michigan. Sorry South Carolina friends, it doesn't look like we will make it south this summer. We will make an effort for next summer to be sure.

Each week things get more comfortable, more routine, but there are always things, and will always be things that remind us how far we are away from the familiar.

When Maeve and I were in a taxi to school the other day, the taxi driver was listening to a "learn English" tape. "A robber is someone who steals from a store. A tenant is someone who rents from a landlord. A shoplifter is someone who takes something from a store without paying for it. A client is someone who buys something from a shop." Maeve got her furrowed brow look - it was funny - she knew she understood it was English but she wasn't quite sure... The content alone sends messages about the relations ship between Vietnamese and English speakers doesn't it?

Sophie gets funnier. She starts many sentences with what we think is a Vietnamese phrase that sounds like "Mee Mow"? She seems to be blending languages a bit. The other day when I was frustrated because of something in the kitchen - and it could have been a veritable array of things that seem to go wrong all of the time - kitchen sink spurting water, being out of milk or ice, drinking water running out. One things that is for sure about living here is that it feels like you can't count on anything to be the same as it has been before. Everything seems to take a deliberate effort still. We have plans to get more full time house help next year which I hope will make the daily working of eating and living easier.) In any case, amidst my frustration Sophie said "Calm down Mom! Breathe." : )

She's also quite the 3D artist. After watching me make a marionette out of chopsticks, foil, and string, she constructed this one completely on her own the next day. (By the way, did you know that chopsticks can not only make a marionette, but be a magic wand or a back scratcher too?)

Maeve had her first official friend over after school last week. Rae is Vietnamese but from North Carolina. She's in Maeve's class and is a real cutie. I love hearing her dad talk who is clearly Vietnamese but speaks English with a southern accent.

Sophie and Charles have been learning about different countries in the world, keeping a journal, and keeping this map in her room with pictures of famous places.

Here, Charles shares both of our favorite house chore, hanging up laundry. See how excited he is to do this?

I got the nicest notice form the phone company the other day on our box, that I wanted to be sure to share it on my blog.

Announcement Re: The Fixed Telephone service is interrupted provisionally.

To: VALUABLE CUSTOMERS OF THE FIXED TELEPHONE SERVICE.

First of all, Saigon South Telephone Center (SST) would like to than our valuable customers for using the fixed telephone service during the last time.

Aim to ensure the quality of service, Saigon Postel Corp. will upgrade the telephone exchange system. On behalf of Saigon Postel Corp., Saigon South Telephone Center would like to inform you that during the time of performance from 00h00 to 04h00 Sunday, March 22, 2009 we need to interrupt your services.

Wishing your help and cooperation.

Sincerely Yours,

Translation? Please use Skype to contact us for at least a week. : )

Here is a picture of the courtyard in our apartment complex - Hung Vuong 2. When asked "Where are your from?" Maeve answers "USA". Sophie says "Hung Vuong Hai."

Here is our friends' smoothie stand on the corner. This one came after her stand at school, so we were already regulars. Days just aren't the same without a mango smoothie.

Lemongrass is my absolute favorite new spice. I think it may be more Thai than Vietnamese, but many restaurants cook meats in it. Delicious.

We went downtown today for a lunch treat at our favorite restaurant called "Juice"

and followed it with a trip to the Reunification Plaza. It is the former presidential palace of South Vietnam, planned by Soviet Architects ala 1960s, and the North Vietnamese tank that collapsed the gates in 1975 showing North Vietnam's victory is still in the front yard.

The architecture is pretty cool. It is all open with many of those wonderful 60s modern lines.

Charles and I agreed that the "Gambling Room" was our favorite.

We will hopefully soon be over our latest round of colds. Guess who got it last and is sniffing as she types? This latest round included hives for Maeve, a little disconcerting, but all fears were allayed when we saw our great Israeli pediatrician who did not seem too alarmed.

Maeve will be six on Friday! It's hard to believe. I remember my mom picking me up in our little kitchen on Coldspring Drive on the morning of my birthday and saying "How did you get to be six?"I understand where she was coming from. : )

I have joined the "jungle" of Facebook as my sister calls it. I must admit that I poo-pooed it so, probably because of how obsessive it is for my students. But it is right up my alley because it is about something I have enjoyed doing for years and did before simply by snail mail ...keeping in touch with people. It is a hoot to see all of my contemporaries and friend with little ones in their pictures. So if I haven't invited you as a friend yet, don't hesitate!

There have been a few hard moments for me this month feeling so far away from friends who are having babies or having hard times. I must admit that the internet is amazing for at least communicating.

There way joy and surprises too. My friend Francis sent me hardback copies of all of the Newberry winners this year. What a treat! Books are especially golden here.

I close with a picture acquired by the very same Facebook. Bonus points this month for anyone who can properly identify someone we know in this rockin' picture:

It's a small pic, sorry, so I'll give you a hint. Look in the lower left corner...

Don't be a stranger!

February Ends

2009-02-28T05:02:00.000-08:00

I have blinked and another month has passed! The remnants of Tet remained at school for weeks, but even they have been cleared away. The flags remain, a happy daily morning reminder of how many different people will be a part of my day. February still feels like February, even half way around the world. OK, being able to sit pool side on a Sunday afternoon in the sun makes it feel a little different. I try to soak up extra sun for all of my friends and family in places that have been so cold this winter. All is well with us.

We still often use school as our off hours play place. The size of campus is luxuriously large by Asian standards, and offers the most substantial place we have found in HCMC to run and play. Here Sophie plays in one of the two new sandboxes. Both can keep us happy for hours.

So few of the pictures in this post are about Vietnam. I know that we find less and less surprising and new. Our life, I guess, has settled in.

Fabulous tubby doos.

Maeve was thrilled to find that we had 100 shells from our beach trip that she could take as her objects for the 100th day of school.

We shared a nasty bout of a stomach virus with each other and even other friends' families. Nice of us, eh? I got it last in my house - just in time to not be able to get back from Tet vacation. When I roused from my bed finally, I found this posted on my door.

Charles paints with the girls quite a bit. Here, Maeve was "inspired" by a Picasso picture book, creating her own portrait of Picasso's wife. I told her it was one of the best pictures that I had seen her paint. Ms. Dyana later told us that during a painting session at school, she taught her classmates about Picasso and painted another version. : )

Ready for the pool! Swimming is still our favorite activity, especially on weekends. Special attention went into pool outing outfits on the shown Sunday morning.

The back playground at school. We often hang out with colleagues and their kids for a Friday afternoon play session. Maeve is taking it easy. You can see the Saigon River beyond her.

The Dotys, who have boys the same age as Maeve and Sophie. David teaches high school math and Blair teaches fourth grade. David's getting his first dose of Charles Waugh political discussion...

It is fun to watch the boats go down the Saigon River right behind the school. Most have hammocks on the upper berths where boat owner and workers sleep. Often roosters man the front decks. I love watching the boats filled with fruit. My classroom window overlooks the river.

Maeve has had a new explosion in literacy. Ms. Dyana (her K teacher whom we love) pulled me aside to share this writers workshop piece. She showed me one from two weeks earlier too, and it is exciting to see how much she is making sense of sentences and word phrasing. She explains our purchase of new bikes - of course the first one too big. She has decided to save it for later.

We were greeted on this morning with "Happy Sports Day!"and ferocious tooth brushing and getting ready quickly. Yep, it is amazing how similar field day can feel half way around the world. I can't get over how much Maeve is growing.

It was funny to chaperone the middle school dance last night. It too was a scene that was predictable and in so many ways unchanged from even my own middle school dances. Lots of not dancing, sitting on separate sides of the room. You know, you've been there! So I think that the one big difference at this dance was that no one was passionately making out in the corner. PDA is a rarity in Asia. Certainly a plus when you are in the chaperone roll...

What else happened in February?

Jay NcTighe, of Understanding by Design, did a conference at SSIS that was great. My favorite part was meeting and working with people who teach all over Asia. I laughed when I explained to Charles that I felt shorter at the Friday and Saturday conference. The room was full of caucasians, and I felt markedly different than I have for the last six months.
Maeve was finally the star of the week in kindergarten. We all had lunch with her at school, she got to display all sorts of pictures of her and her family in the room, and her class created a book for her. Lovely.
I found out that I will remain in the middle school next year. Disappointments and positives suround that one.
I had a wonderful conversations with my mentors, friends, and colleagues Heidi Mills and Tim O'Keefe after figuring out how to load money onto Skype to use it through phone lines. It was great to reconnect with them and hear about how the Center for Inquiry is faring. There was a moment when I was in Maeve's clasroom this week, Rafi's Children of the World was playing ( a song that Tim sings regularly with his students), and I got a little teary. I miss those guys and my colleagues at CFI. I knew I would, but just every once and a while it really hits me.

School is fine but has felt like an especially large amount of work lately. I do have some colleagues who I like very much. But with 5 preps and meetings with all of the departments, it is hard to keep connected. Quite honestly, this is the most traditional school, from a curricular standpoint, that I have been a part of. I miss the continuous, thoughtful, philosophy rich conversations that were a regular part of my days at the Center for Inquiry.

The students are great, which makes it easier to not worry as much about the larger picture of all parts of school life. Just by nature of the fact that it is a bigger school meant from the get go that the experience would be markedly different than my time at the Center. I keep reminding myself that we made this move for reasons outside of the "perfect" job for me, and this has been a very good choice and life change for us right now. And then there is the fact that there is so little left to the year really! I have a week long trip with the seventh graders in April, spring break, and some long weekends, all within only three and a half more months of school. And next year things will not all feel new. We will be living in the same place, I will likely be teaching the same classes and a "veteran" here (few teachers have been here more than two years), and we will return from the States next fall knowing what our days will be like. (I already have my detailed list of what I will pack!) It will be easier to determine what is hard because this is new, and what is part of this place.

I am hoping to secure tickets next week, but yes, we will spend our whole summer in the states. NJ with my parents for our first and last weeks, and hopefully a month at the cabin in Michigan. We are really looking forward to it.

I hope your part of the world is starting to warm.

Keep in touch!

2009-01-26T03:04:00.000-08:00

Chuc Mung Nam Moi! Happy New Year! It is new year's day in the lunar new year - the year of the Ox. The TET holiday is wonderful. It has been fun and really interesting to see and learn about a holiday so different from any of our own. Having another week off of school doesn't hurt either.

So Tet has been described to me as many of our holidays rolled into one - Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years... It is a time of true celebration and time with family. Today, at the end of New Year's Eve and preparations for Tet, you could walk down the middle of the street for five minutes and not have to move. The streets are deserted! Everyone had returned to the countryside or is home with family. We have had to prepare for even all of the grocery stores closing for three days. People are especially happy and smiley, and moving a little more easily amidst the city chaos that is a part of our lives every day. In many ways, it is a very lovely holiday.

Gifts are exchanged for Tet. People give each other flowers (more about them in a bit) produce, baskets of food, and "lucky money" in special little red envelopes. That's about it. It is so practical and makes sense. Workers are allowed Tet bonuses by law. We gave our cleaning lady an additional months salary, which is standard fare.

The big flower market in Phu My Hung was actually right behind our building. (Photos to follow.) This was a good thing during the day, but loud at night. (We smiled at each other last night at the silence of it.)

The flowers in all of the flower markets are breathtakingly beautiful.

Maeve learned to wish everyone a happy new year in Vietnamese. That has been a big hit. She also got to celebrate International Day at school. We came prepared with Walmart bandanas and socks and a 4th of July dress.

Here's Maeve in the parade of Americans. : )

It was so fun to see all of the kids in their traditional country dress after seeing them in uniforms every day. They all looked so different. I laid eyes on clothing I had never laid eyes on before in my life! (Like traditional Philipino shirts and outfits from Malaysia). OK, the confession is that we did not really have international day as a middle school, so I snuck my math students out to watch the "parade of nations". The whole international day idea is something I was really looking forward to and couldn't resist.

Little American posers at International Day. It was really fun to sample all of the foods from different countries. One bite from the food at the Japanese table sent me whooshing back to high school and my stay in Japan.

The flower market near our house was impressive. Here are dragon fruit plants.

Here we are setting out to check out the flower market after school one evening. We dined on Vietnamese spring rolls and cotton candy.

It is the year of the ox, so you see statues of them everywhere. It was fun to go in here, the deserted amusement park directly behind our apartment. They used the space for the flower market and accompanying diversions, but did not use the ferris wheel, etc. (Looking at the state of them, I'm not sure they could ever be used again.)

We saw water puppets here, like the ones that we saw at the history museum. (I think it may have been the same troupe.) Yes, they are puppets that are in water. This one is my favorite.

A cool picture of the troupe as they take their bows, in water, at the end.

A twilight view of the market behind our apartment.

We also headed downtown for the Tet decorations and flower markets there. They were impressive! I also noticed how uncommercial they were. Huge main thoroughfares shut down and mostly decorations of flowers, plants, statues, and other "arrangements" were everywhere. There were a few drink and ice cream vendors, but not the miles of chatchkas and stupid souvenirs you would have seen in the US at something like this. Charles reminded me that it was probably all carefully groomed and chosen by the government. Pepsico Vietnam was involved.

Maeve and pineapple plants...

The downtown flower market. Flowers as far as the eye can see... The air glowed yellow.

More downtown decorations.

I have never seen such orchids in my life.

This was one of my favorite downtown decorations - hugh yellow flowers suspended above the main thoroughfare in a giant net.

These plants look right out of a Dr. Suess book and make me nervous for some reason. (???)

Dragon fruit plants and sunflowers at the downtown flower market.

So one of the amazing things is that people come to the flower markets and buy these huge, gorgeous plants. There were very few cut flowers at all. There were some smaller pepper plants and cacti, but most of the plants are quite substantial. Then, of course, people need to get the plants home....on scooters of course! Here is a couple with their four hugh plants, venturing home for a happy Tet.

Christmas decorations shared space with Maeve's Tet contributions.

Small paper lanterns we bought at the flower market.

These yellow flowers are EVERYWHERE, including the girls beds.

I went to our school's version of a New Year's party at colleagues' very cool rooftop apartment in the next building. It was fun to sit on the outside patio in the cool breeze (by my standards - I had a tank top on still) and welcome in the new lunar year.

Grandma and Aunt Jen's Christmas Packages made it just in time for Tet! Who says you can't have another Christmas tree? (Especially a magic crystal Christmas Tree. Thanks, you guys.)

Thanks to Diana Butcavage who sent her Christmas card that made it here, no problem! Basically the rule of thumb seems to be about two to three months for packages to arrive. Thanks to Diana, I now know that regular letters and cards only seem to take about 10 days to two weeks. Good to know, especially if you were thinking about sending us a letter or card. (Not so subliminal, eh?)

Chuc Mung Nam Moi to you! We hope you are well and can find a little of the flowers, peace, warmth, and joy, maybe even lucky money of the Tet holiday in your life this week. Don't be a stranger.

Holidays

2009-01-08T02:58:00.000-08:00

We have returned from our journeys! Yes, a little early. We had some wonderful family time, certain adventures, and learned oodles about ourselves and traveling as a family. I am so proud of the girls - they are getting so much older and were great travelers, not always in the most comfortable of circumstances.

Paradise Resort was a little bit cabin, a little bit camp. The older French guy who runs the place with his Vietnamese wife is quite a character - very welcoming and charming. He had a little bit of Grandma Riley in him and looked more like my dad than anyone else we have seen in Vietnam. The girls ran to embrace him. It was funny.

The view from our bungalow at Paradise Resort.

Lesson #1: The Waughs have decided that we are a flying family.

The train ride to Nha Trang was an adventure indeed. Packed to the gills with locals, the train car that reminded me more of New Jersey transit than Amtrak provided a long ride. We were told that we did not need to buy a ticket for Sophie so Charles and I juggled her on our laps for seven hours. Don't ask about the bathrooms- let's just say that Sophie mastered a pretty awesome stand on the toilet and squat.

Lesson #2: Buy a seat for Sophie.

When we arrived in Nha Trang, there was not a car to meet us. (Never did quite figure out what happened there.) It was pouring buckets and my friend had explained how dangerous and far the trip was. We decided to not risk it, and stayed in Nha Trang for the night. Good choice.

The next morning we set out for Doc Lech beach. A long but very cool taxi ride. It was wonderful to get out into the countryside and away from the din of HCMC. We enjoyed the beach, the amazing shells.

Meals were fun - family style as we met people from around the world. I especially enjoyed talking with a young Dutch couple traveling throughout Vietnam. A pair of women were there from Finland and staying 10 days! I felt badly for them. They hadn't yet seen the sun when we arrived and it was what they were counting on most.

Maeve loved swimming with her dad in the waves most:

What is your favorite part at the beach? I asked her on paper. Playing in the waves.

Here's an intimate glimpse of Charles' and my laying in bed conversation...

"You know honey, I used to lead two week trips in the middle of nowhere and not be phased at all by lack of clean water, not showering, and sleeping on the ground. I think I am getting a little soft. I want a hot shower, fluffy towels, and clean sheets."

"Yep. You're getting soft."

" And the beach would be gorgeous and wonderful if it were not for the trash, cow poo, and sharp shards of glass."

"Oh, now you are just being a snob."

Needless to say, with the chilly weather, and the feeling that any moment someone was going to get gashed, we headed back to Nha Trang on the third day. Did I mention that we never had enough toilet paper at any point on our trip?

Lesson #3: Julie Waugh had now surpassed the time of great joy from roughing it and adventure trips.

Maeve and Charles share a spot of tea on our porch. Although 70 degrees and cloudy was not the best beach weather, it was glorious after our life in sweaty Saigon. We all actually donned long sleeves.

Some of Sophie's treasure from the beach were leftover Styrofoam floats from the fishermen at the local village.

The beach is breathtakingly beautiful, even on a cloudy day.

Maeve and Sophie loved jumping the ferocious waves in the South China Sea.

Sophie spent extensive time making sand creations.

The shells were abundant and incredible. Many were unlike any I have ever seen, and I have never seen so many in one place in my life. We have beautiful collection of them at home.

Sophie especially likes the coral pieces.

A local fisherman in a traditional Vietnamese basket boat.

A tropical storm in the Philippines made the ocean very rough. Maeve did enjoy her first lessons from her dad about wave surfing and riding. Sophie had a chance too, but did not last as long. They were the roughest waves I had ever been in!

Coconuts right outside our bungalow.

After three days at Doc Lech, we went back to civilization and treated ourselves to a nicer hotel room for one night. Nha Trang is a huge tourist destination in Vietnam with beautiful beaches right downtown. We enjoyed the restaurant Louisianne, with western style food, a pool, and beach side umbrellas and lounge chairs. It felt a little like Grandma Sundberg's Ocean Club. We ate there more than once.

We ventured on cable cars over the ocean to Vinpearl resort - a very upscale resort but also aquarium, and small amusement park. A couple of hours of good ol' tourist fun. The cable car trip alone was awesome. We enjoyed the family car bumper car session too. The place was empty because it had rained all morning and was "chilly". It was our best spur of the moment decision on the trip.

The view from our hotel room in Nha Trang.

Nha Trang rainbow.

The very cool aquarium on Vinpearl resort. It had one of those moving conveyor belts that went through a large tank. We got to see rays, sharks, and huge sea turtles up close.

Maeve the climber, at the Vinpearl kids play place.

View from the world's longest cable car ride over ocean. This was a cool part of our trip.

After unsuccessfully trying to secure plane tickets back to Saigon for us (It is a big travel season as we near Tet, the Lunar New Year and Vietnam's largest holiday.), we settled for the blue train. It was much nicer and cleaner. Maeve and Sophie loved the novelty of sleeping on the top bunk of the train. That was until Maeve felt "trainsick" and had a hard time. It would have been fine if I could have slept at all on a moving train. Coming home to our own beds was a treat.

Lesson #4: The Waughs have decided that they are a flying family.

Top bunks on the improved train ride on the "blue train".

In all, we had some good times. Cool weather, quiet and ocean, seeing new places. Was it the incredibly relaxing getaway I longed for? Sorry. But we are learning that living in a foreign country is often like that. You are never quite sure what you are going to get. We did get a good sense of what travel in Vietnam is like, and will make smarter decisions about our next trip. (Flying within the country, for example, is not that expensive and we could probably budget for it.)

We were also incredibly proud of the girls and what good travelers they are becoming. If we were moving, be it train, taxi, or cable car, they were pretty happy. We will work on their picky eating habits which provide a travel challenge. (And life challenge!)

Tomorrow morning we head to the known fun place Dem Sen water park for a last yahoo before we go back to routine on Monday.

Happy New Year! One of my resolutions is to write more and keep up with this blog. Tan biet for now....

Happy New Year!

2008-12-30T23:34:00.000-08:00

We are happy to report that, indeed, Santa does fly all over the world. We had a lovely Christmas morning. That tired, after the opening rush, new toys laying all around feeling that coffee does not help with at all was familiar and exactly the same. Games, jump ropes, tea sets, a new Barbie, puzzles, and new beauty kits dominated the day. That evening the girls presented their version of the Nutcracker for us.

Christmas Eve, we went to colleagues' house, Joe and Theresa. (They have an adorable nine month old named Nikko.) Their 13th floor apartment has a fantastic view of Phu My Hung and Saigon. It was fun to have dinner and XMAS cookies with others. It was at this time that I missed my family the most. In fact, there have been a couple of moments that were hard in my first Christmas away from my parents in 40 years. Over all, though, we had a good Christmas.

We had a chance to Skype with family a couple of times, which was great. For a few minutes I felt like we were with them.

Sophie models her new birthday cake hat, traditional Vietnamese Ao Dai (prounounced ao-zy), and not quite ready for Vogue makeover from her sister's new beauty kit.

Maeve and Sophie in their new traditional Vietnamese outfits.

A couple of days after Christmas we ventured downtown to see the water puppets at the History Museum. Very fun! Water puppetry is uniquely Vietnamese I understand. It has this interesting feeling, kind of like the feeling you get when you see a snake in water. The themes are traditional Vietnamese stories (fishing, the golden turtle, for example. Charles said he would be sure to get me a fishing outfit like the one the puppet in the picture is wearing next Christmas...) One of the highlights was the dragon who came out at the beginning breathing fire and spit water at the audience. (I got a little wet. Charles is convinced the puppeteers were having a bit of fun with me.) When Maeve told my family on Skype about the water puppets, someone asked "Did you get wet?" She said "Yes. And a kindly lady brought Sophie and I paper towels to wipe off."

When we arrived to see the puppet show, they said there was no room and to come back at 2:00. We have learned that tenacity and sometimes playing the naive American role can work to your advantage in Vietnam. In the end, they put a few plastic chairs in the front for us.

Our fellow audience at the water puppets.

Sophie launched a personal campaign against the ants in our apartment. (Everyone has them, and there seem few ways to get rid of them - one of the little pain in the behinds about Vietnamese life. They are annoying at the least.) In any case, she cut and made flags with sticks to put into each plant on our small patio, and in Charles' new kumquat tree. "Ants please love us and don't eat our plants." is what they say.

After a long wiggly-wobbly time, Maeve finally lost her first tooth. The tooth fairy left dong and dollars! Very exciting. She even put the money in a beautiful, small, pink embroidered bag. Cool, Vietnamese tooth fairy!

Maeve used her Dong to go to the new kids play place at the Lotte Mart. We had a wonderful morning hiding in the ball pit that has ball load and shoot cannons, sliding down the giant roller slide, and playing with the unique games there. It will be a great place to go from time to time to play, exercise, and have fun.

Things are gearing up here for the biggest Vietnamese holiday, Tet, which comes up at the end of January.

We are gearing up for our big trip to the beach on Friday and are very excited. It had been raining a lot this week so we are hoping the dry season will return to us. The resort is a stay in a bungalow on the beach, all meals included, sleep in mosquito nets place. We're hoping for a week of sand castle building, reading, shell searching, and swimming. The pictures of Doc Let (pronounced yop-let) Beach are stunning. We will be sure to take a few ourselves to share.

Happy New Year to you and yours! We'll check in when we are back from our tropical paradise.

Holidays, Vietnamese Style

2008-12-21T18:14:00.000-08:00

I know, I know. A whole month! I have an excuse. So many big aspects of international school life happen so early. Exams and report cards were something I was ready to do. Ordering for next year, and being involved in the hiring process for next year, I was not! I still need to go in for a couple of hours today or tomorrow to finish the math department ordering. SSIS has hired a new upper school principal this week. I was invited to facilitate the faculty part of the interview process, and pull together faculty feedback. It was an interesting process.

It is amazing to me how early the "Where will you work next year?" conversation starts. Friends assure me it is how it works in the international school world. If I think about it, I knew that I was moving here in February of last year. I have thrown my hat in the ring to make a move to the comfortable land of elementary school. (Whose principal is also departing and a new assistant principal job is is open.) We'll see what happens.

It is our third day of a three week break, and I have started to feel the connections between my brain synapses again. But I have to back up...

We had a lovely Thanksgiving with our friends the Perkins.

The dinner was awesome - the turkey some of the best I have had in years. We celebrated on Sunday because we all worked on Thanksgiving Day! It was a little strange. I am proud to say I made a pecan pie, as I have for my southern husband every year since we have been married. Here, it was a challenge to top all others. The pie pan? My neighbors. Baked? In the Perkins' oven. Pecans? After sharing my astonishment of the $20 price tag for the right amount of pecans to a wonderful SSIS parent at the check out line at our local western gourmet food shop, she sent her stash to school for me. I am finding out that expat life is about sharing and helping others out in new ways.

The morning of our Thanksgiving celebration, our school hosted the Terry Fox Run for cancer research in HCMC. Charles ran the 5K in honor of Nancy Riley, my sister in law. It was a wonderful community event on a beautiful day.

I also made tributes to Grace Carey and Jon Brenner, two people who are in our thoughts and hopes in relationship to cancer research.

We could tell the Christmas season had officially started when we saw the beautiful lights outside of our balcony.

Charles wonders whether or not there is a translation issue involved in the story of Christmas in Vietnam. Did they think that Jesus was born in a cave? I laughed it off at first, but after seeing many "cave" creches around the city, I wonder if he is on to something... (By the way, this one has a rush of water that runs over the top and back of the tarp. ??? Fabulous, eh? The cotton snow is so realistic.)

The Christmas season also brought familiar kinds of celebrations like a fantastic dinner and dancing party at The Duxton (a fancy hotel downtown) hosted by SSIS. It was great fun. We had roast beef and other wonderful foods that were a rare treat. How fun it was to dance and party with colleagues. I think we have found a great baby sitter to boot.

Maeve went on a school field trip connected to her study of seasons. They went to Dem Sen park, an amusement park. They went into the "ice cave". Yes - the thrill of an amusement park event that involves putting on heavy winter coats and being in the cold! (I can hear my sisters in New England giggling.) A very nice mom who supervised Maeve on the trip sent pictures to us.

Maeve has had her first season of performances. She excelled in her solo in the dance recital. The most fun for her, I think, is her new fancy dance outfit, complete with wings and halo. Maeve had a solo for the jingle bells number. Very exciting.

Her school Christmas concert was fun too. I took my whole sixth grade science class to watch. Maeve was asked to be the narrator. She did a splendid job. No fear whatsoever of the microphone. (OK, maybe one very public nose pick...)

Aside from the holiday preparations, our lives have been busy and full, with all of the events all homes with kids enjoy. Maeve is proud to annouce her first loose tooth! It is now very wiggly wobbly. Will the tooth fairy and santa come on the same night?

This same kindergartener is also reading like a pro. Learning to read is a process I have spent so much time thinking about, as I took doctoral courses in language and literacy, but it still feels like magic when you are in the midst of it!

Sophie "reads" too. Each story shared, Maeve reads first and then Sophie. She is quickly learning her letters and numbers. We just got an old huge chalkboard from school like the one we have on Trenholm. Let the learning begin!

We found the Vietnamese version of playdough and had a wonderful day creating.

We still swim at least four times a week!

You would be impressed with how well Santa has done with absolutely no Christmas wrapping paper to be found. (Brightly colored bags from the store, bulletin board paper - shhh.... don't tell school, regifted gift bags...) I have done two things that I said I would never do this Christmas. #1 - buy a fake tree. Voila!

It could be the most atrocious Christmas tree I have even laid eyes on. " It's beautiful!" is all Maeve and Sophie have to offer. Enough said. :) We found some stockings for Santa to stuff too. Right now we are playing "Christmas morning", taking turns wrapping "gifts" in blankets to pretend that Santa has come and unwrap.

#2, I bought a Barbie doll. The things you do for your children...

We are counting down the days to Christmas with our paper chain of dates.

I realized, as we put up the tree, that it was the first year that the girls were able to decorate the entire tree by themselves together. Wow they are growing.

I got the best Christmas present early, straight from Kindergarten.

We are off to a matinee of Madagascar 2 at the NEW MOVIE THEATER TEN MINUTES AWAY!!!!! It is amazing, in this last week alone, the new one stop Lotte mart grocery store, bookstore, movie theatre, and bowling alley opened, as well as a new children's book and toy store which is slotted to open elsewhere today. Walking into the Lotte Mart two days ago brought tears to my commercial American eyes. We will no longer have to go to a million different stores to do our weekly shopping. Phu My Hung and Ho Chi Minh City have changed exponentially even since our arrival five months ago. People talk about how ten years ago there were not stores in Vietnam that were anything like grocery stores. (Actually, this entire part of the city was a rice field ten years ago.)

(We have just returned from the brilliant new stadium seating movie theater with only 8 people in it for the movie. We paid $10 for all of us to see it. We returned to greet our housekeeper who just cleaned the entire apartment. Sometimes I like living in Vietnam. : )

We are fine, and realize that this international life wears well on us for now. I know that there will be moments during our holiday season when we will miss people, family especially, terribly. It won't be long before we see them again.

I promise it won't be a month before my next entry so check in. And drop us a line, we'd love to hear from you! jsriley@aol.com

We wish you peace, love, and joy for this holiday season.

We miss you all.

Love, the Waughs

Steamy November Vietnam

2008-11-21T12:42:00.000-08:00

Yup. It is still hot. Sweaty at 7:30 in the morning after you walk to school hot. I knew there would come a point when it would feel so different that it was still hot. I have hit it. We have had a few glorious nights when we have slept with the windows open, and last week brought beautifully breezy mornings when I was tempted to keep walking to the park instead of school. On the flipside, how fantastic is it to spend every Sunday morning at the pool?

I realized a couple of things when I looked at my blog the other day. First of all, it has been way too long since my last entry. There is no doubt that we have entered a new realm of daily routine and life here. Time is flying. Today you could not have convinced me that Thanksgiving is a week away. The other thing I realized is that my pictures and descriptions have become much less about Vietnam and what is new in our life here, and more about happenings within our own smaller, daily, expat life. I have therefore promised to try to capture more of the daily, uniquely Vietnamese aspects of life that shape our days here.

We are almost well, after a week of passing around a cold and fever/achey virus. Quite honestly I am always a little relieved when we pass something around the house quickly because it lets me relax, knowing that it is not a mosquito borne disease that we have to worry about. Thursday, I was home from school as well as Maeve, and we actually had a nice day reading - all of us! I read 3/4s of Three Cups of Tea. Maeve has reached that moment in time where she has transformed into a reader. It's so exciting, so fun, and seems like magic. I was so happy at the joy she took from a lingering visit to the Fahasa bookstore downtown. Needless to say we left with a few samples and always take the opportunity to grab a few good English books when we can find them.

I returned to school the next day with a rose on my desk. : )

Thursday was Teachers Day in Vietnam. What a nice surprise it was to get a few sweet gifts. I have to say that I definitely feel how differently I am viewed in the eyes of students and parents in Asia. Don't get me wrong, I had many wonderful students and worked with some fantastic parents in the states. But here, I am thanked profusely by parents every time I see them. And yes, students have their moments, but overall, there is this huge, looming expectation that they will behave, be respectful, and be good students. I have to be careful to make calls home when it is really necessary, because calls from teachers can bring extreme ramifications.

I smiled on my trip to the doctors the other day because I actually recognized almost the entire trip downtown. I wasn't sure that would ever happen amidst the cacophany and chaos of Ho Chi Minh life. It's beginning to feel familiar.

Just as my friends in the states talked about some of the best conversations with their kids happening in the car on the way to places, Maeve and I have great conversations on our taxi rides.

So here's something that made me happy about Vietnam the other day. We had not yet bought cell phones. I had heard that some people, as foreigners, had to go through lengthy processes of registering to get a phone. We actually have survived pretty well without one. (And there is the added fact that you can't really use it here to call businesses or get information because , well, most people speak Vietnamese and I don't.) Anyway, my friend got a spiffy new phone that is pink and rings "Oh Micky You're So Fine.." and she offered her old phone to me. I was a little confused about how that would be helpful, but my friends David and Urko in the IT department at school put a SIM card in the phone for me, replaced the battery, and voila! I have a cell phone, complete with number, and a month's or more minutes all to the tune of 200,000 Dong (about $12). (You actually purchase a card with a chip that goes into the back of the phone and gives it a cell phone number and minutes and then you just load minutes onto it.) So I know that the pay as you go phones are getting more popular over time, but why the heck do we have to pay so much money to use cell phones in the US?

I love seeing babies on their moms' backs like this. This is in our apartment complex.

Our local bakery on the street in front of our building. It is Korean, and everything tastes as equally white flour sticky sweet as the sugary doughnuts the girls love the most. We do live in an expat community, but it is the Korean expat community. It is very interesting. Most of the American, Brits, and Aussies that live in HCMC city live in a place called An Phu, which I have not yet been to. It is about 45 minutes by taxi.

I have high hopes for this new Lotte Mart (also Korean) opening in December. I hope it may bring some one stop shopping back to my life. We'll see. It may be one stop kimchee shopping.

Maeve made the school newsletter with this one from the Halloween parade. She is with her closet kindergarten friends Andrew and Tommy.

Being silly at home. It is lovely how happy and settled the girls seem to be.

Waiting on the SSIS morning bus. Maeve likes to be first in line and Dad takes her down a bit early so she can. P.E. = swimming now. Can you say even happier about life at school? Charles and Sophie usually keep walking after putting Maeve on the bus for breakfast and coffee.

It seems we finally have people appreciating our beautiful little house on Trenholm Road. They are renting , with a contract to buy when their home in Texas sells. (You'll notice I said when. Keep your fingers crossed.)
The weekend's job it to find a turkey for the big day. We're celebrating with our friends the Perkins.

What do we celebrate?

I am thankful for this life changing experience,

and our health.

I am thankful for our friends and family whom we miss, all of the wonderful people in our lives,

and our new friends, especially those who make us laugh so hard we have to cross our legs.

I am thankful for Aunt Nancy's recovery,

and the cabin visits we will enjoy with her and many others for years to come.

I am thankful that Grandma Riley had such a long and interesting life, and that I told her how much she meant to me before she died.

I am thankful for the luxurious time we have together as a family

as we look towards three weeks off for XMAS break.

I am thankful for you, taking the time to share this unique part of our life with us, if even just by reading.

Tan biet for now.

Our World Widens

2008-10-31T22:49:00.000-07:00

It is hard to believe that weeks have passed. Yet we have done so much. For starters, Charles returned from his trip to Phnom Penh with great stories about a Cambodian wedding and a soccer game between Cambodia and East Timor. He got to have some great meals, and quiet, late mornings with coffee, the news, and a big, uninterrupted breakfast. Sounds like he appreciated the "personal time". Sorry no pictures. He didn't think to take the camera out of his bag.

I have no pictures of Hong Kong either, sorry. The camera battery was in backwards and I thought that the battery was dead. I will try to take more pictures of our lives because I know I will cherish having them later. But I need no pictures to remember Hong Kong. The sights, the feel, and the smell of it have left an indelible image on my brain. What an amazing place!

It is a combination of the San Diego Zoo, Times Square, and Disney World. It is modern and sleek, and efficient in ways I could not imagine for so many people in one place. It is very green and you don't go long without seeing water from one of the bays. There is pollution, and it sounds like it gets worse daily as China gets more industrialized. As a naive weekend visitor, I feel like it gave it a misty, ethereal quality adding to Hong Kong's mystique.

Hong Kong is clean, so clean I felt I could eat off of most surfaces. The whole island seems like a giant architectural puzzle, carefully built up. At one point I was on an outside escalator heading up to catch a bus, (Mmm Hmmm, get your head around that one.) and I looked over the side to a 80ft. plus drop! Zoinks! (There actually is an escalator that goes from the bottom to the top of the island, which I will do in its entirety on our next visit.) It felt like you could spread your arms and touch the skyscrapers on both sides.

I am convinced that you could buy almost anything that is made on the face of the earth in about ten square blocks in Hong Kong. I have been places before on the earth that people described as a shoppers paradise, but this is the only one I have been to that lived up to its name. All kinds of goods, all kinds of prices, absolutely anything you would need in life, and then some. I know that Maeve and Sophie will appreciate my trip to Toys 'R Us on Christmas morning.

I went to a terrific workshop on leadership skills at the Canadian International School in Hong Kong. Physically, it is an amazing 14 story purpose built facility wedged in the side of a hill overlooking Repulse Bay. A jaw dropper of a place. I particularly enjoyed meeting the people who work there, as well as the people from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and China. The workshop afforded me a wider view of the international school world. It was a nice feeling to be the rookie international teacher/department chair in the room. It has challenged my interpersonal skills in new ways.

I went to the workshop with Rhonda Isley, my assistant principal, who was great fun to get to know better. I learned new things about SSIS, too, which will help me negotiate my life there. Rhonda has very close friends that live in Hong Kong, Bob and Susan, who were so great at showing us around and picking the perfect restaurant for dinner. I know that my trip would not have been so diverse and fun without them.

My favorite story about Hong Kong involves Rhonda. She left her passport and ticket in the airport and realized it as we were about to board a tremendously efficient internal train that would take us to our gates. (By the way, we checked our bags at the train station downtown, and didn't have to touch them again until we got to Saigon.) After going back for a look, and talking to guards nearby, she came back to begin making plans with me about having to stay and get a new passport and visa as she went with me to our boarding gate. "Don't give up yet." I told her. "Maybe your ticket and passport are waiting at our gate." When we arrived to find no passport or ticket at the gate, I gave into the fact that Rhonda would not be returning to Saigon that day. And lo and behold one of the guards ran up with Rhonda's ticket and passport with 5 minutes left for us to board. After cheers and enthusiastic thank yous, Rhonda expressed that she could not believe it. Rhonda has literally traveled around the world and she said that she could not imagine this happening in her life. The man at the counter smiled at us and said "Welcome to Hong Kong!" in a Mr. Roarke sort of way. "Have you been to Hong Kong before?" he asked us. "No," I said, "but I will certainly be back."

It was hard for me to filter how much of my enthusiasm for Hong Kong is because of how clearly different it is from Vietnam. Despite feeling like Times Square on New Years Eve, shopping in the main districts felt calm and quiet in comparison to the cacophony of Saigon. Goods were so plentiful and in convenient locations. Saigon has many, many of the same goods, but they are all spread out among thousands of tiny stalls and shops. It is hard to find the time to simply find things quite honestly.

Back on the home front, we were able to take the girls to the Dem San water park on a day that Vietnamese children in the whole country were in school. It was great fun! Water slides, a wave pool, and a "lazy river" which the girls decided was a circular lap pool in which you could swim very fast with the current.

Back to routine, things are well. Yesterday we celebrated Halloween! Thanks to our friends the Perkins and their timely costume share, Maeve got to be , well, you can see for yourself...

I went as Candi, the Krispy Kreme server. Sophie refused to wear a costume. We still got to trick or treat at faculty apartments and we went to an incredibly hectic Halloween Fair at school where we got to experience our favorite Vietnamese custom of people cutting in front of you in line all of the time. Maeve and Sophie had fun despite.

The week of vacation, Maeve, Sophie, and I all went to Well Being, a salon across the street from school, to get our shaggy hair tamed. All three us us sat in chairs at the same time, and in the middle Sophie said "This is so fun!" (By the way, the total bill was about $8.00) It doesn't surprise me that at home our favorite new game is salon. Maeve has made the signs we need to know when the salon is available:

Charles realized why Maeve had asked him "How do you spell treats?" when he saw his addended shopping list:

Maeve continues to enjoy dance class immensely. We ordered a pink leotard, tights, and skirt today so she can have the same as her classmates. Maybe she will blend in. (OK, maybe not...)

I hope you are well. Drop us a line.

October Holy Cow I'm So Glad It's Break

2008-10-18T03:18:00.001-07:00

Bliss. It is Saturday night, and I have the whole week off! Nemo is the Saturday night movie on Disney Playhouse. We just finished a dinner not nearly Charles Waugh quality, and it is officially time for the evening cocktail. Charles, by the way, is most likely at a Cambodian Wedding with our friend Joel Conkle in Phnom Penh at this moment. He left this morning to have a couple of days to explore and live an adult life. He deserves it. Joel lives and works in public health there, and is one of Charles' favorite people to argue with. Has the makings for a great weekend for him.

One of my favorite stories of the week was about Charles' trip to the Cambodian Consulate when he went to get a visa for his trip. When he went to the pay window, they told him the cost of his visa, and everyone in the room laughed. They explained that he could pay $10.00 less if he did not want to "expedite" his visa and wanted to come back later to pick it up.

We have felt this a lot lately - our "special price" because of the color of our skin. Charles has taken joy in playing hard nose in any flexible paying situation, walking away, paying for Xeom rides (motorbike) up front, and walking away from deals completely. Quite honestly, our price is always at least twice that of the Vietnamese.

I had my own trip to the American Embassy last week to get a document notarized. To be sure, I idealized what I though a trip to an American Embassy abroad would be like. You know, stately, refined people speaking in dignified whispers and cozy wing tip chairs in which to wait. Quite honestly if I had closed my eyes, I could have been at the DMV on Decker Avenue in Columbia, SC. How do they do that? How do they create that "Everybody's the same and everybody's stupid" DMV feeling half way around the world? The guy who was pissed off and started threatening to give up his U.S. citizenship got to go before me even thought it wasn't his number. How does that happen?

I get to go to Hong Kong at the end of the week for a leadership conference. Added an extra day for SHOPPING! I am hoping to complete most of my Christmas shopping in one day. Here, it is so hard to find things, and when you do, they are in 15 different stores. The conference sounds like a good one too, incidentally. : )

Maeve made my week when she said, out of the blue and while she was coloring, "I used to be afraid of moving, but now I like it. Know I know I can be happy moving anywhere. " It's amazing how kids let you know things that you want to know at just the right moment...

Maeve's world of literacy is exploding. She is beginning to read early texts, and her favorite thing to do in my classroom after school is create elaborate picture stories on the board.

Here is one of her most recent, involving a giant bird, a giant flower, and Sophie saving the day with her sword.

When she was done with it she said "Daddy, write And they live happily ever after... at the bottom. He started, and she said "No Dad, in Chinese!" and proceeded to create a caption of what looked like Chinese characters. "What does it say?" Charles asked. We didn't understand her answer.

One cartoon on our one kids channel Playhouse Disney has made a particular impression on Sophie. It is called Safety Patrol. Charles hates it. The kids stop the story line to say things like "Uh Oh, can you point out the safety violation here?" when a kid is walking up a playground slide the wrong way. Then Charles says louder "Make sure you do what you want to!" Anyway, the other night I was waiting in Sophie's bed for her to go to the bathroom before we read books. Sophie came in, held up her finger and said "Uh oh. Safety violation. I forgot to wipe!" (A divergent attitude from her sister who says "I always wipe.")

We are proud owners of a safe. I have to admit it makes you feel like you have bucks, even when it holds only dollars that belong to my school to pay for my Hong Kong conference and our passports. We have been advised again and again to have one. With workmen and maintenance workers in and out, all who make probably $6000 US Dollars a year, some people in apartments have problems. There is also the running out of Dong factor. Most people go to the bank for their big black bag of Dong (See last week's post.) and stock their safes with a month's cash.

Charles and Sophie made it to the Vietnamese History Museum to see the water puppets. (Traditional Vietnamese puppet show in water.) Can't help you visualize-haven't seen it yet. Made a huge impression on Sophie. Maeve and I are looking forward to going back with her this week. Charles said they watched the show with an Irish tour group. When he walked into the room, he laughed. "Everyone looked like you." he said. I think it struck him much in the way that I feel like I look like most of the women in the room when I go into a restaurant in Michigan in the summer. And yet heightened. We spend our days amidst tight, skinny, small Asian bodies. Yes, we have lost a few pounds. The girls are looking svelte and angular. But by no means do we blend into the crowd.

Last week was a tough one at school. With parent conferences and other extras, it was stressful. This week ushered in the bottom of the pile! I am hopeful that it is the beginning of a new comfort. I can feel my real teaching "chops" coming back. It is a good feeling. The lower school unanimously and emphatically said they would like to have books instead of basal readers this week. The curriculum director asked my opinion about the matter just once, and after a passionate half hour soliloquy , I am not sure she is happy she did. Even though it wasn't mine, the decision felt like a victory.

One of the things I am beginning to accept, is that nothing is the same in Vietnam. And I don't mean that it is not the same as the States. It is not the same here. If you find a good product at the store, you may not be able to get it again, even in the same afternoon. If you know a restaurant or shop, it will move or close. If you figure out how to do something, procedures change. I have already mentioned the continuous construction everywhere. It changes the physical landscape in ways that make you wonder if you have gone the right way... Charles said the theory goes that as a culture, the Vietnamese don't place an importance on consistency and live in the moment in ways we may not understand, mainly because of their continuous experience with war. This country has lived in a state of uncertainty for as long as they can remember. They can't count on what is going to happen tomorrow.

I had a couple of wonderful finds at our corner grocery store this week. The first is a Vietnamese alphabet puzzle:

I was aware of all of the multiple sounds from the same letters because Vietnamese is a tonal language. I was not aware of the missing letters like f, j, x, and y. I wonder why the Vietnamese alphabet does not have these letters?

These last find are the pieces des resistances... I don't know what questions to ask. (?!?)

More photos next time. Hey - drop us an email sometime. We miss hearing from people. And when we miss events like the wedding of wonderful people like Alan and Joni, I get a little misty. Enjoy your celebration you guys. I know it will be one of the best parties on earth. We love you and will be there in our dreams....

Indian Food

2008-10-06T12:54:00.000-07:00

My first middle of the night writing in a long while. It feels like a long time ago that we were all up in the middle of the night adjusting to a new time schedule. No doubt tonight's sleeplessness is due to the delicious Indian food,delivered right to our door, that has given me a raging case of heartburn.

Last Tuesday was parent teacher conferences at school. Maeve's, by the way, was stellar. She has come so far and become so strong as a student. She is happy, happy, happy. And walks around like she owns the place.

So it meant that Maeve had the day off. Charles thought it would be a great day to go to a place we had heard of called Questzone, an indoor playground for kids. According to the Nordic Chamber of Commerce website Charles was going there. A half hour taxi ride later, no luck. Charles realized he could get all pissed off about it, or make the best of it. Then he saw the Military Zone 7 South-Eastern Area Armed Forces Museum! Wow I feel like I missed out having to work all day. Here's an excerpt about the museum from the glossy brochure: With 609 exhibits, 242 pictures and 60 extra-scientific documents (statues, embossments, sand tables, maps....and so on), the central room is general pictures talking about the armed force of the South Eastern Area during 30 years of resistance(1945-1975). Here, there are exhibits, pictures helping visitors to understand parts of simple lives but rich human-culture of the South Eastern fighters and understand popular events during the building and developing process of the South Eastern Armed Forces and learn more magnanimous battles contributing to make history crossroads for the two revolution wars.

Here is a picture of Maeve and Sophie with Ho:

And a Vietnamese tank:

After the museum, they went to a nearby park, which Charles realized was certainly more about the couples on every bench than children.

They played anyway...

There are many moments that I am happy to be with my blue eyed daughters in this country. People smile and stare at them and we can often get away with whatever we want. Sometimes, people want to hug and kiss them and squeeze their cheeks in ways that make me uncomfortable. They deal extremely well with it. One afternoon at school, a woman gave Maeve a running hug and picked her up and swung her around, showering her with kisses. "I guess you know my daughter." Charles said. We got the gist that she was the assistant in the early childhood room next to Maeve's. "Maeve," Charles asked her as we walked away,"who was that?"

"I think it was one of Mommy's students."

Charles has threatened to charge for pictures with Sophie when they are out and about. Hey - we have to pay that South Carolina mortgage somehow, right?

I went to the bank last week to wire money to South Carolina. Going to the bank here is always fun. The system is so antiquated in ways. Despite the fact that they do use computers for everything, every transaction also has 15 duplicate forms to accompany it. You have to fill out the paperwork for a withdrawl, and then go and sit down to wait for them to get ready to give it to you. Then, you can put your money in the money counter to make sure you got it all. It is amazing to me how much Dong people walk away with. Many fill a thoughtfully provided black plastic bag with the stuff and walk out of the door! Maeve was with me one day as a woman completely filled a grocery size plastic bag with Dong. She looked at me with saucer eyes like "Can you believe it?"

It always puzzles me in a place where I am always being warned about watching my purse and Katy, a student teacher at the school, had her bag stolen out of the front of her bike basket just the other day on the main stretch of road between school and our house. Watch your purse, but carry around the same black bag that everyone knows what is in it full of Dong?????

Maeve and I had a wonderful Saturday morning at dance class! We watched the end of the 3 and 4 year olds class before hers. Can you say Asian adorable in tutus? I started thinking about who will hopefully soon be a new niece from China and how cute she may look in a pink tutu. The class was terrific. An hour long (!) with a quick snack break and a wonderful balance of "Keep your legs straight." and joyful dance, which we know is Maeve's specialty. The class was small, and Maeve was only about twice as big as all of the others in the class. It will be a wonderful addition to our weekly routine.

As things get more and more comfortable, they sometimes get annoying. I caught myself speaking in bad Asian English the other day. I think I have entered the under water part that you hear about in dealing with culture shock. (Where you begin to deal with things under the surface and not just as a tourist.) A great guy who has a seventh grader at school and is from the States talks about how he was homesick and had a hard time for about six months, and then it was OK. It would be silly to say out loud that this is not the States. With a great new printer at home, work has become a step easier, which helps. But there are times when the little details of living take up much more time than I want them to.

When Sophie can't read something, even if it is in English, she says "Awww, it's Vietnamese!" (which sounds more like Vinamese when she says it with her animated little edge.) Someday, I trust, Vietnamese will not be synonymous with something we cannot understand...

Hope you be keeping well. Keep in touch.

It's Raining Again...

2008-09-28T02:36:00.000-07:00

As the thunder crashes across the sky on a gloomy Sunday afternoon, I can't imagine that two weeks have passed since my last blog. Days go faster and faster and the new becomes familiar. We no longer think of a trip to the grocery store as a big deal, whereas at first I felt like I had to do some major planning before I jumped as a fish into the mighty stream of people.

Some days are a little longer than others, like the day that Charles and I flopped into bed at about 8:00, talking about the cheeky and sometimes disrespectful ninth graders in my Algebra class and how to deal with them, and the grim outlook for a house sale in South Carolina amidst the economic environment of the times, when someone pounded on the door. It was Mr. policeman, doing a routine check. Although we did not yet have the appropriate paperwork, he was satisfied with a gander at our passports and gave me a number for school to call the next morning. I was also able to get our friend from school, Bich (pronounced Bik : )) on the phone and she talked to him, assuring us everything was OK after. It turns out we were the first teachers in three years to have a visit. "Honestly, I was ready to take the information out of the orientation guide." Charles Barton, our headmaster, told me. I am glad that it wasn't a complete surprise to us. I think the guy at school who is in charge of paperwork was in a little trouble...

Mr. Policeman was actually very friendly and said "No problem." quickly in response to Charles' concerned face. Some people have told us that he probably just wanted money. It is clear that sometimes it is a good thing to be a clueless American. Charles commented about how weird it felt that a policeman came alone and without any sort of weapon.

We have finally kicked our first round of kindergarten colds and Charles wound up with a sinus infection, as he always does. The best part is that he was able to go right to the pharmacy, tell them exactly what he needed, and buy it. He was almost giddy about being able to circumvent the $100 doctors visit that would have generated the exact same results.

We celebrated Charles' 41st birthday with a night out! We started with a drink at the Rex Hotel rooftop garden. Its historical connection is that it was where the correspondents covering the Vietnam War rubbed elbows. It felt a little like the Tiki room to me.... A great breeze and a couple of drinks was a great way to start the evening. We met an American woman from Texas living in Australia whose husband works for Mobil.

We ate dinner at a middle eastern restaurant called Skewers - really delicious. I couldn't help but feel the international similarity in big cities. As I sat and looked onto the street, I could honestly have been in New York. I am certainly still adjusting to city living. It is invigorating and exhausting to be sure.

Friday night we went to a grand party at our friends the Perkins. A reunion of sorts of the "newbies" at school this year. Such an interesting and fun group of people! I won't tell you who overdid it a bit and paid for it dearly on Saturday.

Maeve loves school more and more. (Hurray!) She has started calling me Ms. Dyana accidentally every one and a while. A good sign. Tomorrow, she will ride start riding the school bus by herself. She looks cute in her uniform, don't you think?

On weekends we make our way to school quite a bit - sometimes to ride our scooters in the gym or use the great pool. It is nice to have these spaces to run and play.

One of the fancy "Starbucks-ish" coffee shops is across the street from school so we can stock up and spend the morning.

Speaking of school, it gets more comfortable every day. Ray Smith is who I plan and teach 7th grade science with. He is a field biologist by training and we are embarking on a cool butterfly count study with our students. (Tim O'Keefe, if you are reading this and "doing" butterflies, get ready for some web collaboration.) My Center colleagues would be proud of our weekly planning sessions. It is nice to have something like this going on - I feel like so much of my teaching has to be fairly traditional by necessity right now given the newness of it all, 5 preps, and fewer resources that I have had in years.

It is a good thing that I can still laugh with my students about the incessant pounding of construction. Our new cafeteria is supposed to be done in October. A brief reprieve before they begin to build the new high school building...

Here's what I love:

watching Sophie wave goodbye on the back of the scooter
giving Maeve a kiss and wishing her a good day on her way into kindergarten
paying less than $1.00 for the best bunch of bananas you have ever tasted
ordering a fresh fruit smoothie right at school
riding in taxis (most of the time - see the end of the next list...)
pho
rice
home delivery of almost anything in the world
incredibly cheap 400mg. ibuprofen pills
discovering a great new restaurant
hearing live music and watching dance at school each day
hanging out with new friends, and meeting people who have had such interesting life experiences
the victory of finding something we need at the store
emails from people I miss

Here's what I miss:

family and friends
fluffy, clean, wonderfully smelling towels and clothes
the park near our house
the Columbia Riverbanks Zoo
using a debit card (I am always running out of Dong, and so are the ATM machines!)
plentiful, cheap art supplies
Target
the cabin
our back yard
being surrounded by books
people standing in line without cutting in front of you at the grocery store
other peoples deodorant use (Charles contributed these last two...)

Here's what I don't miss:

Having a car

Love to all. Savor your next trip to Target and your extensive selection choices for me.

Tet Trung Thu = Vietnamese Moon Festival

2008-09-14T05:26:00.000-07:00

In the fall, the Vietnamese celebrate the moon festival in honor of their children. Historically it is a time after the harvest, when parents make up for time in the fields and spend time with their children. Earlier in the week, we made our own lanterns to hang in the kitchen, and we watched as they hung beautiful lit lanterns around Hung Vuong 2, our apartment complex. Maeve came home from kindergarten with a Vietnamese hat decorated ala Maeve. Then, the celebration came to us! Bich, our bilingual Vietnamese friend, called us to tell us what was going on right beneath our balcony. We were on our way down.

We promptly got lit lanterns, (Yep. Even the two year olds were handed lanterns with candles in them to run around with - love this country - it has the spirit of what it used to be like for us as kids before lawyers.) and joined the throngs of little ones that live in Hung Vuong 2. Wow - the music

and talk was loud. So loud that Maeve bailed quickly to watch Mr. Bean with Dad. Sophie couldn't get enough. The girls fell asleep literally in the midst of concert level loudness.

On Saturday, we headed to the SSIS pool which we had to ourselves! So nice. I scooted across the street to Well Being for an end of the summer trim. Well, the trim was only the beginning. After a hair wash and condition, facial, head, and upper body massage, and chilled cucumbers on my face, I walked back to the pool with a smile on my face feeling better about the world. Damage? 80,000 Dong. ($5!) This week I'll try the full body massage place. I told Charles that I thought I probably needed a weekly trim. : )

We're trying to emerge from our first kindergarten colds. Hopefully Maeve will make it to school all week. I have to go, because We Wish You a Merry Christmas on the second alarm clock that I have purchased since I have been here will be singing all too soon. Only in Vietnam...

A Trip Downtown

2008-09-07T02:32:00.000-07:00

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.

Greetings from steamy Saigon!

2008-08-31T02:48:00.000-07:00

Sin Ciao!

Life has finally settled down enough for us to sit down and write. We have been in Vietnam for four weeks (hard to believe) and I have gotten used to so many things that were so new just weeks ago. Charles, Maeve, Sophie, and I are enjoying a long weekend because of a national holiday, and today felt almost like a normal Sunday.

Our first visit to Saigon South International School meant muddy feet! The school has been undergoing a major new building project and quite honestly it was hard to find the front door. The most amazi

ng part was watching a work crew plant the huge front field, each little plant by hand. (Yes, you see people wearing traditional Vietnamese hats every day. They make sense for sun and rain, both of which there are plenty.) It was just the beginning of a feeling that I have had every day since...people walking around behind me

cleaning up. The sheer volume of workforce in Phu My Hung (our neighborhood) continually amazes me.

Saigon South International School is a great place. I have enjoyed meeting other teachers and their families extensively. Many seem to be from the north western coast of North America, both the States and Canada. One other southern family from Nashville is the extent of the Southern U.S. contingent.

My new students (6th-9th graders) are delightful and from all over the world. It is

comforting how similar daily life in the classroom feels to what I know. I have enjoyed working with middle schoolers again after more that ten years. I have had to rely on textbooks more than in a long time, and it is funny how hard it can be to help students make connections to them because they are written for an American audience. My students have learned many things about the U.S. because of it. I know I will be able to use textbooks less as I figure out where all of the resources are hiding.

It has been challenging walking into a completely empty room after so many resource rich days at The Center for Inquiry. My position is new because of new kids, so I didn't move into an existing position. It also seems tricky and expensive to get resources into the country. I'm sure I will be tripping over stuff in no time.

Maeve is loving kindergarten. I knew all

would be alright when she came home and taught me "Skidda - ma - rink" the other day. Long days have been an adjustment, but she seems to be settling into routines.

I have a quick ten minute walk to school, which I love. If Maeve and I go together, we take a taxi. One is always waiting outside of our building and the 16,000 dong price (about $1.00) certainly even beats driving the Saturn with U.S. oil prices.

Speaking of Dong, (the Vietnamese currency), the cost of living is quite inexpensive here. Daily expenses of living and eating (providing you are not always eating western food) pale in comparison. We are beginning to negotiate the grocery stores that locals use every day. "Fresh is better" here and most people have very tiny refrigerators. (Including us!) We have tried all sorts of new foods that we like. Dragon fruit, and pomelos are some of my favorites. (Maeve misses chicken nuggets and sticks to apples, baguettes, and grilled cheese. Ugh. ) We have catered food for school lunch which is AWESOME! I feel like I will never have to pack a lunch for school again. (My Center teacher friends will understand how appreciated this is...)

It rains every day and is hot, hot, hot. Not too unlike good ol' South Carolina in August. My colleagues from British Columbia walk around in pools of sweat much of the time. It definitely feels tropical, and near the Equator in ways that are different than SC.

Our apartment is luxurious by Vietnamese standards, open, and comfortable. It has been interesting to adjust to no oven, no dishwasher, and no hot water in the kitchen. We will eventually buy a toaster oven and microwa

ve. I have to admit that I miss a clothes dryer. We have a washer in our balcony, and hang everything up to dry. I have a new appreciation for lint traps...

Although Phu Ny Hung is the suburbs, it feels like we live in a bustling city. Until we go downtown. I have never experienced the same kind of rush of people, motor bikes, and general melee before. It is intense. Charles said that he saw someone moving an entire, fully constructed swing set on the back of a scooter the other day. He and I have talked about how there is a calm to the chaos in driving. People tend to make way for one another in some ways. Rarely do you see any "road rage". The only scooters we have so far are awesome razor scooters that the girls ride in our children laden apartment courtyard but that will change soon if Charles has anything to do with it. I'm just proud to have figured out how to cross the street...

That's all for now. Send questions and keep in touch!

Julie