Day 1-I spent four hours at Highlands Coffee with two of my guy friends. I have been so fortunate to keep in touch with them this year but it was so nice actually getting to spend time with them. Unfortunately I have no current pictures because we were not allowed to take pictures in the coffee shop...I didn't quite understand that but here are some that help show why I love them so much. (Thien is in the first picture and Toan is in the second)
Day 1 (Night)-Because of the chaos in the downtown area, I watched the fireworks from Janell's apartment. I had a perfect view and was the perfect distance away so they were not too loud!
Day 2-Janell made us quiche, potatoes, and English muffins for breakfast. It was beyond delicious. After breakfast, I was able to meet up with three girls from our Vietnam team, Deidra, Ashley and Jenni. We took a trip down Nguyen Hue street which they line with flowers every Tet. This year was the year of the cat...in Vietnam. According to the rest of the Asian population, it was the year of the rabbit. But either way, we celebrated the year of the cat and Nguyen Hue was covered with cats statues amongst the flowers. It was definitely a site to see. I was just upset that no one informed us we had to dress up for pictures...literally, all of the woman and children were dressed to impress, posing up and down the street. After perusing the street, we went back to Janell's and were treated to homemade chili...it was very ngon (delicious).
Day3-Janell and I had a lazy day. I read while she worked on resumes. After trying to hunt down milk and eggs, which were almost impossible to find due to every store being closed for the holiday, we ate dinner and went back to her apartment and watched movies.
I slacked on taking pictures so this one is from last year but I think it represents her well...she loves to cook and she is darn good at it.Day4-Because the sun was actually out in HCM, Janell and I went to the roof and read for a while. After soaking in the sun, I went to a house of my past students...I say students because I was able to teach three of them! We had fun playing cards, BINGO, and a horse racing game which is their version of Sorry. I was pretty proud of myself during the BINGO game though because they were only saying the numbers in Vietnamese and they would only let me call them in Vietnamese. After playing games for three hours, they asked if I could stay for dinner. I had been planning on leaving at 4:30 because of my flight but they insisted so I sat down and pr*yed they could cook as fast as they claimed. Sure enough, the bowl of soup was on the table within a matter of minutes. The kids and I ate while their mom and grandma checked in to see if everything was delicious. Because we were unsure of how quickly a taxi could take me back to Janell's, one of the girls took me on her motorbike. Every time we came to a light she would turn around and assure me we would make it on time. She flew back to Janell's and before I let her drive home I gave her a huge hug. It was at that point that I realized, I may never see them again. I have been so fortunate to have them as friends and I will never forget them. Anyway, at this point it was 6 PM so I flew up to Janell's, said a quick goodbye and headed to the airport.
(Alex, Jane and Henry who has always been taller than me, but who has grown up so much in this past year...I didn't even recognize him at first)After talking to my parents about my trip, they asked why I had not gone somewhere new and all I could say was that I needed too to go. I had been missing people like crazy and it actually gave me the opportunity to have that one last time with everyone. Who knows if I will have time to go down there before I go back to the states so it was a nice goodbye.
Sorry to make this a long blog post but the day after I got back was my birthday! The night I got back from HCM, my friend gave me roses and mugs. Nicky gave me a card the next morning saying she would treat me to Indian! After an intimate church service (since everyone was still gone for the holiday), two episodes of American Idol and a much needed nap, Nicky, our friend Stephanie and I had a wonderful Indian dinner! Yesterday, a group of us went to the food court (the only place open) for a birthday lunch! Later that night we went bowling! I felt so blessed to have so many people come out for my birthday! Even though I probably bowled the two lowest scores of my life, I had a blast!
(I am sure you cannot see the scoreboard but it would say the persons name and for some reason it said "normal" by it. We had a few laughs about that one. After bowling we went to Pho and ate a delicious cookie Dawn made...I love her for thinking I was turning 24 however you need to add one more year for me)
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