Taxi Ride

I have never been put in a more stressful situation than tonight and come out of it the better. I was going to pick up Josh from a playdate and used my cell phone to call a cab to the villa. I then realized my phone was not working so I used Steve's phone. I called the cab and then his phone rang so I gave it back. Meanwhile the cab came and I got in and forgot to grab Steve's phone. But being over-confident I thought I knew where I was going and didn't think I would need my phone. LOL Can ya'll see where this is going??? My friend gave me the right directions but the taxi driver didn't really know where he was going. We pull up to where I KNOW I am supposed to get out, but it really didn't seem like it. So I asked him if the Hotel was near this street. He laughed and then called someone on his phone and then handed it to me when he got them. They barely spoke English and it sounded like they were at a party. She kept telling me to write down the address, but I didn't know it. Usually you just tell the driver a street name and major point of interest, but this time was different. I then pull out my Vietnamese phrase book and wrote down the two streets and pointed to the word "nearby", in the book so I could see if they were close. Well of course not!! We were on one of them but the other street was about 14 miles away. Well I couldn't call Steve or anyone else for that matter, but I just knew I was in the right area. So I had to ask the driver to use his phone ( I was going to call a friend that spoke both English and Vietnamese) and the driver didn't want to give me his phone at first....but I made him .LOL And when I got hold of her, she knew where I wanted to go and she said that I was in the correct area. Now in case I give my parents a heart-attack, the ONLY reason I got out of the cab, is because I was in front of a hotel and tons of taxi's hang out there. So in case I really was lost I could just grab another taxi and head home. So I walked around about maybe 5 minutes and found the right hotel that I was supposed to go to, found the pool and Josh and his friends. PHEW!!!!! I was pretty proud of myself. I was very calm as I thought of what to do. Now when I sat down with the other mom's, I did order me a beer. Ugh, what a waste, it was warm.

New House ~ Sept

YEAH!!! We are finally in a villa!! It took a couple of tries but in the end it was a God thing. Isn't it always like that?? It feels so huge compared to the hotel we were staying in. LOL And one thing we didn't expect it how it makes us feel isolated. At the hotel, everything was right there; grocery store, restaurant and the ATM machine. However, here in Cipatura you really need a bike to get around. It will take some time, but we will get there.

I just LOVE where we live!! I love all the palm trees! Our next door neighbor plays the piano, and I mean PLAYS. I have only heard playing like that on a CD. They are amazing. The other day I hung out on my front porch and just listened to them play. It was Mozart's Sonata #11. Simply beautiful.

Steve just got back from The Big C, a grocery store much like Walmart. He walked in and said, "I hate takings Taxi's! They never know where they are going." Now to be fair, some are good and some are bad. But the past three drivers we have had, have been horrible. Not sure if they are just trying to get more money out of the fair or if they really have NO idea where they are going. But to have a personal driver it is about $900 a month and we just don't have that lying around the house.

Well I know I will not be bored here, as I signed up to be on the committee for the Autumn Festival at the kids school. I also joined a book club and have been asked to several people's home for coffee mornings. The ladies who I have met are very welcoming and that has helped a lot with the transition.

Last night we all walked to this restaurant called JAFA's. It was about a 20 minute hike. The weather was around 88 degrees. Josh and Lizzie enjoyed that. The kids love our new place. They can walk to at least 3 different playgrounds. Soon we will be getting them bikes.

I will post some pictures of the new place soon.

If you have any questions for me, just let me know. My email is akwink@gmail.com

Have a great day!!

Pictures ~ August 2009

Here are just some pictures of the kids swimming at the Mexican pool party and also at the hotel.

Kids First Day ~ August 17

How many kids take a taxi to school? Well Josh and Lizzie did on their first day of school. I was a nervous wreck. Traffic was horrible and getting them into their classrooms was chaotic. One of the many different things about this school is the kids get to take off their outside shoes and then can wear socks, flip flops or even go barefoot in the school. Well, Lizzie was very concerned about "where" to take off her outside shoes, so as soon as she was through the door, she stopped right there and took off her shoes. LOL She was very concerned where to put her backpack, and all her school supplies. She was a little nervous, but who could blame her? Josh and the other hand had no problem. One of the boys from his class saw that he was new and showed him where to put his backpack and lunch. He went right into class and proceeded to make new friends. :)

After we dropped them off I told Steve, "I am NOT well with this!" LOL It just seemed so hurried, but again this is all new to me as well as the kids. Then Steve and I had to walk to get a cab. It is so weird not having a car, it really limits you. But we got a cab and it took us 45 min to get back to the hotel, whereas it only took us about 20 min to get to the school. Here are some pictures of what traffic was like going home.

Picking the kids up from school, I met a lady who was from Ft Wayne, Indiana!! Small world. Actually Steve and I went to school with her younger brother, Tom Dettmer. She has been over here about 12 years and her and her husband teach English at one the Vietnamese schools. Her son Max is in Josh's class and those two are SO much alike, it's scary. Both kids said they had a great first day, and gave me thumbs up!

Wednesday August 12, 2009

Halong Bay Trip ~

Steve and the kids and I along with my freind Jacqueline and her son Yung Ting all went on a two day trip to HaLong Bay. It is on the

East Coast of Vietnam. I believe Ha Long means "Bay of the Descending Dragon". Legend has it that a mother dragon and her baby came down from Heaven to help the people of Vietnam from their enemies. The dragons formed all the rocks in the bay and that prevented the enemies from reaching the shore.

Let me just start off by saying that the whole trip was a lesson in patience. It was a 4 hour shuttle ride in which the AC didn't work so well. ( Back in the states it would have only taken us an hour to get there..lol) But we had quite the international crowd. Along with our 6, there were 2 girls from Japan, 3 girls from Chile, 2 girls and 1 guy from Barcelona, Spain. We stopped halfway there to take a restroom break and to shop. As soon as we got off the shuttle, ladies were telling us to buy ice cream, which is what Lizzie wanted. They thought that was so funny because the lady said, "Ice Cream" and Lizzie replied "I want some Ice Cream? haha What could I do? So around noon we finally get to the dock and board the boat. It was soooo hot and very humid

and our group was looking forward to our rooms with AC. However, we were told that could not turn on the AC until after dinner. YIKES!!!

.

Lunch...they kept bringing out food. Jacqueline and I were laughing because we were not sure who was going to eat all of it. :) At first I was worried about the kids and the food, but let me just say, you will eat anything if you are hungry enough. HAHA So Lizzie and Josh both had fried scallops, pork pieces, rice, french fries, fruit, and shrimp.

After lunch our tour guide took us to this amazing cave. It was nice and cool and had lots of formations. We then tried to go to a beach for some swimming, but couldn't. So we took the boat to a cove and all of us jumped into the water from the boat. Even Lizzie!! I had to overcome my fear of murky water. LOL But then it started to thunder and lighting so we all got back in the boat.

Dinner was pretty much the same, a ton of food and it was really good. BUT after dinner is when the party started. Dinner was done around 8:00pm and Lizzie was really tired so I went to put her down. That is when the staff pulled out the Karoke machine. I think they all took a turn singing, and I kept hearing clapping and laughter. You could tell they were having a good time. Well the next morning I found out WHY all the guests were clapping and laughing. Josh and Steve had stayed up and Josh danced with ALL THE LADIES!!!! Hee hee. One of the girls from Chili said that Josh was the life of the party. :) That made my heart smile, because you can tell that he is having a hard time on figuring out where he falls into this whole experience. I was just glad that he interacted with all the guests on the boat.

The last activity that we went on was kayaking. Steve and Josh in one and Liz and I in the other. Lizzie LOVED it! We went around all the tall mountains and Steve and Josh actually went into a cave. It rained on us the whole time, but we didn't care. After that it was time to head back to shore and then back to Hanoi.

We will definitely go again, maybe next time in the Fall.

First Week in Hanoi~

Ok so we arrived Friday night July 31st at 10:00pm. The flight over was very long but both kids did really well. Neither one slept on the long flight over. On the plane every headrest has a tv monitor, so they were able to pick out movies or tv shows to watch. Lizzie found that to be "awesome". So by the time we arrived in Toyko it was 3:00pm but about 11:00pm US time. We all felt gross so we found some showers...felt great after that! But if course after a shower, my kids got really tired and crashed HARD on the chairs in the airport. Josh was so confused when we had to wake him up, he kept walking up to people to try and sit by them. I guess he thought they were his Mom and Dad :) The plane ride from Toyko to Hanoi was scheduled to leave at 6:00pm but it was delayed about 15 minutes, not to bad, but my kids kept falling asleep at the gate and really just wanted on the plane so they could sleep. When we finally got on the plane, we ALL slept the whole flight. Going through customs and immigration was a breeze in Hanoi, which was nice since at that time it was about 1:00 am for us and my kids have now been traveling for about 24 hours. One of the Directors of Southeast Asia met us at the airport and brought us to our hotel...felt sooo good to sleep in a bed. :)

Hanoi Towers the Hotel/Apartment we are staying in is a 3 bedroom service room, which is very nice but I can't wait to be in my own place. Saturday all of us just slept in, and then took a nap, then went downstairs for dinner and then off to bed again. :) On the 4th floor of Hanoi Towers is a restaurant called Jaspas. Is it not bad, they serve some western food and some Vietnamese food. They serve a lot of fresh fruit juices The watermelon and apple are my favorite. I mean it is fresh squeezed, yum. The glass comes out with the pulp on top and the juice on the bottom. The kids don't like it, but Steve and I do. The apartment has a mini kitchen but NO oven. LOL and I brought over some muffin mixes for my kids. Apparently most places do not have ovens and in August I can see why. hee hee But on the first floor there is a Citimart which sells some American food. That is where we get most of our food. They have the M&M's, pringles, Coke Lite, Oreo's, Ritz crackers, bread, milk, yogurt, even pancake mixes. Now Jaspas does make pancakes, but they don't taste quite the same. The other morning Steve, Lizzie and I went down for breakfast ( Josh just stayed up in the room) and I ordered a typical Vietnamese breakfast food called Pho-Ga. It is basically chicken noodle soup which you eat with chop sticks. I ordered it, Lizzie ate most of it, and Steve wished he had ordered it. LOL

Lizzie is doing really well over here in regard to the food. Some friends of ours (we met them when we came for a visit in April) had us over for dinner and served us rice, veggies and shrimp tempura. We told the kids the shrimp was chicken nuggets ( hee hee) and Lizzie ate a TON of them, Josh not even one. LOL So we told Lizzie it was really shrimp, she didn't even care, she just wanted more. HaHa! The other day while we were shopping she saw some shrimp and wanted to buy them and have me make them for dinner. Liz is also doing very well making friends. At the pool here in the hoel she will walk up to anyone (her own size) and say, "Hi, I am Lizzie. You want to play with me?" She met a little Chinese girl that didn't speak English, she met a boy from London and a girl from Australia.

Josh is doing really well also. He is learning to go with the flow. We haven't seen any boys his age at the pool, but he still has a good time. In regard to food, I think almost every night he has has either pizza or a grilled cheese. ( Kind of like being in the US) LOL Oohhh one night he had some rice. :) But by choice he will come around, it might just take longer. He is ready for school, actually they both are. We went to the school and the kids saw their new classrooms. It was really cool, on the bulletin board outside of Lizzie's classroom it listed all the kids name and the their country. She thought that was so cool. If I can remember them all, I think she has kids from; Singapore, Mayalsai, Korea, Australia, Sri Lanka, and 2 other Americans. I think there are some more, but I can't remember now. Joshua's classroom didn't have the kids name outside the door, but one of the teachers there told us some of the nationalities in his class. I believe they are: Sweden, Luxembourg, Australia, Mayalsai, Japenese, and he is the only American. Again I know there are more, I just can't remember them all. So school starts for them Monday, August 17th. Which is good as they are going stir crazy in the apartment.

The weather here....is JUST like Houston but WORSE!!!! I really would have thought that impossible, but my hair is living. HaHa From what I have been told Hanoi does have 4 seasons. I can't wait to see what winter is like.

We did get to go to a movie theater in town. It is in a mall type setting. Again, our friends took us. We saw Harry Potter and it was in English but had Vietnamese subtitles. AND you also had to pick your seat when you bought the tickets. HAHA We were early for the show so we walked around the mall. It was really neat, they had a ton of electronics and appliances you could purchase. A lot of variety. Now you can also buy some this this same stuff out on the streets. Near downtown you have streets that will just sell one thing. For example, one street just sells shoes, another jsut clothes, one just TV's. It is very interesting.

House Hunting has been fun. I really enjoy looking at all the houses here. Most have been 5 to 6 floors high, all are marbled or wood, but the kitchen's are small and not many have ovens. One house had chickens in the back yard and the car parked in the living room .LOL Lizzie thought that was so funny and wanted us to get that one. But I think we found one in a community called Ciputra. It is gated and looks very similar to an American neighborhood. The kids could ride their bikes down to the playground, and it has a pool and work out room.

Ok so last night we went to a Mexican Pool Party. :) Lia, who is from Texas (yeah) and went to Concordia in Austin, lives here in Hanoi and hosted the party. I met Lia when we came for a visit back in April. Well her brother Michael and her are born on the SAME day ( just diff years), so they make it a point to always be together on their birthdays. SO this year it was here in Hanoi. We had homemade tortillas, spanish rice, and fajitas. It felt like home...hee hee The kids met a TON of new freinds, Josh even exchanged some email's.

Church here is very different as well. We meet in a conference room in a hotel. Everyone participates and the kids even have a Sunday School. They loved it. Church doesn't start until 10:30 and usually afterwards we all go to a restaurant for lunch. Last Sunday we went to an Indian restaurant. It was very good, but VERY spicy.

That is all for now..keep checking back for more updates.

In CHrist ~

Steve, Amy, Joshua, Elizabeth

This is just a test.