Happy Thanksgiving!
Last night I was following my little new tradition of buying a new Christmas album every year and downloaded the new NOW Christmas album. It's all Christmas songs sung by 'today's artists.' Some of the songs are the good old classics while some are new and are more like pop songs with a Christmas theme. Well one of those 'pop' songs, Christmas Without You by One Republic, came on my shuffle after school. It's a song about how much they have missed, but they would die before missing Christmas with you. Yepp, almost made me start bawling in my classroom. I have been feeling quite bummed lately thinking about how I'll be missing Christmas with my family this year and will have no snow or cold weather (which I hate when I am home, but seem to miss it now. Haha, how ironic). I am excited to go back to New Zealand and more than grateful that I even have the opportunity to do so, but I really wish I was going to be back in Iowa.When I got home from school I was standing out on my balcony, still listening to Christmas music, when I saw the most gorgeous rainbow.
So here's the back story on rainbows. About a year and a half ago a family friend passed away and shortly after a lot of people close to her started seeing rainbows all the time. Not knowing this, a few months later I was talking to my mom and told I had seen like four rainbows the week before and wasn't that so crazy? She then told me about how Jackie's family members had been seeing a ton of rainbows. It gave me chills. I used to never see rainbows. Ever. I think I'd seen maybe three in my life. All of a sudden I saw them all the time. I saw them while driving, I saw one while sitting on an airplane on my way to Texas and I saw them constantly in New Zealand. Then I stopped seeing them. I think the last time I saw one must have been spring. Until today. How weird that I see one the day I am sad and missing my friends and family and just being at home in general. It was a comforting and sad feeling all at the same time, but it really made me think. Yes, I miss my family and am extremely sad I won't be with them for the holidays, but I am also extremely blessed to be on this adventure. And while I won't be able to see them in person I have Skype and the phone and they are still there.
Tonight I am celebrating Thanksgiving at a buffet at a nearby hotel. They will have turkey and pumpkin pie and so many of the good friends I have made will be there as well. I am so excited to eat some food that reminds me of home! (Even though there is no way that turkey will even come close to my dad's turkey, because his is the best!) I am also excited to wake up early and Skype my family and see everyone all together and be jealous of their yummy foods! Thanksgiving is a little easier to miss since I wasn't there last year. I am mostly excited to see them all at the same time!
So with that, I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am so thankful for all the amazing people in my life and to be here in Vietnam because even when it is hard, I know I am so lucky to be doing this and getting to see the world!
As always,
Michelle
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Sunday Fundays
Hello All,
It seems I have gotten out of my lazy routine these last two weeks and have been actually getting out and seeing the city. It started last week with the Dam Sen water park and continued this week with some shopping and a movie.
So we will start with last week, the water park. A group of seven us decided to check out the awesome Vietnamese water park which is conveniently located about twenty minutes from my apartment. It was a blast and the whole day cost less than $10! It was a lot like water parks back home. Don't be fooled though, there were some differences. For example, most lifeguards are kosher with you playing chicken in the wave pool surrounded by lots of people. Oh, the wave pool also has live entertainment. A nice band that sings songs from Chris Brown to Cher: it was epic! Before going we were warned that we would be constantly starred at, and boy was that right. All day long people starred! The park had a lot of the same slides we have back home, for instance the toilet bowl. The only difference with this one was that instead of dropping you into an eight feet deep pool, it drops you into a pool that is about three feet deep and has a padded mat on the ground. I'm glad I dropped out feet first! They also had a lazy river and a zip line! The zip line was a lot of. One of their only rules was to not zip line from your feet, which they displayed a nice picture of someone doing it. However, rules at the water park aren't really taken seriously and when my friend Andy did go from his feet, they did nothing. In fact no one really cared. Safety here is obviously a big concern...
Today Sunday Funday made its second appearance. Last night Michelle, Amber and I had an old fashion sleepover. We ordered food and ice cream and watched netflix, so we were well rested and ready for a fun day today. To start off we went to one of our favorite cafes with Sara, L Uisine for breakfast and coffee. We all had the most amazing food and ended with a delicious cupcake then Amber and I decided to explore Dong Khoi, a street with tons of cute shops. It was fun walking around a different part of district one, and a nicer part at that. I even found stuff to bring home with me next summer... look at me not procrastinating!! Oh and we saw a playboy store, which it turns out just had lots of expensive clothes and most of them were not very 'playboyish' at all. Then we decided to be lazy so we came back to my apartment and watched a movie... then went to the movie theater to see another movie. Have I mentioned that the theater is located a convenient 23 floors beneath my apartment? Oh I love this city! Anyway, we went and saw a kids movie, Hotel Transylvania. It was really cute and the popcorn was super good! After dinner we ordered food from Jaspas, my new favorite restaurant.
Now I am awaiting the people of America to wake up so I can Skype. Sometimes this time difference really kills me! I have no plans for next week, but I am hoping that I can once again not be lazy and keep seeing what this city has to offer! I hope that y'all have eventful Sundays as well. (Although, reading back on today sounds super lazy, but I swear it was productive in the morning/early afternoon!)
Love and miss you guys,
Michelle
It seems I have gotten out of my lazy routine these last two weeks and have been actually getting out and seeing the city. It started last week with the Dam Sen water park and continued this week with some shopping and a movie.
So we will start with last week, the water park. A group of seven us decided to check out the awesome Vietnamese water park which is conveniently located about twenty minutes from my apartment. It was a blast and the whole day cost less than $10! It was a lot like water parks back home. Don't be fooled though, there were some differences. For example, most lifeguards are kosher with you playing chicken in the wave pool surrounded by lots of people. Oh, the wave pool also has live entertainment. A nice band that sings songs from Chris Brown to Cher: it was epic! Before going we were warned that we would be constantly starred at, and boy was that right. All day long people starred! The park had a lot of the same slides we have back home, for instance the toilet bowl. The only difference with this one was that instead of dropping you into an eight feet deep pool, it drops you into a pool that is about three feet deep and has a padded mat on the ground. I'm glad I dropped out feet first! They also had a lazy river and a zip line! The zip line was a lot of. One of their only rules was to not zip line from your feet, which they displayed a nice picture of someone doing it. However, rules at the water park aren't really taken seriously and when my friend Andy did go from his feet, they did nothing. In fact no one really cared. Safety here is obviously a big concern...
Today Sunday Funday made its second appearance. Last night Michelle, Amber and I had an old fashion sleepover. We ordered food and ice cream and watched netflix, so we were well rested and ready for a fun day today. To start off we went to one of our favorite cafes with Sara, L Uisine for breakfast and coffee. We all had the most amazing food and ended with a delicious cupcake then Amber and I decided to explore Dong Khoi, a street with tons of cute shops. It was fun walking around a different part of district one, and a nicer part at that. I even found stuff to bring home with me next summer... look at me not procrastinating!! Oh and we saw a playboy store, which it turns out just had lots of expensive clothes and most of them were not very 'playboyish' at all. Then we decided to be lazy so we came back to my apartment and watched a movie... then went to the movie theater to see another movie. Have I mentioned that the theater is located a convenient 23 floors beneath my apartment? Oh I love this city! Anyway, we went and saw a kids movie, Hotel Transylvania. It was really cute and the popcorn was super good! After dinner we ordered food from Jaspas, my new favorite restaurant.
Now I am awaiting the people of America to wake up so I can Skype. Sometimes this time difference really kills me! I have no plans for next week, but I am hoping that I can once again not be lazy and keep seeing what this city has to offer! I hope that y'all have eventful Sundays as well. (Although, reading back on today sounds super lazy, but I swear it was productive in the morning/early afternoon!)
Love and miss you guys,
Michelle
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Kid City!
Hello my lovely friends!
It's been a couple weeks since I have blogged and there has been so much going on. For instance, last week the kids had their first field trip of the year to a place called Kid City. It was organized by the Vietnamese staff, so going into the field trip I really didn't know a whole lot about what the day would consist of, but it ended up being such a great day.
Kid City is a place where kids learn all about tons of different jobs. They go through 'training' and they can earn money to spend on places like the 'spa' or a place where they can make ice cream. I was expecting this to be a small, indoor place. Boy, was I wrong! Kid City is HUGE! It is all outside and each job is inside. There probably 30 jobs for the kids to try. Everything from firefighters and doctors to photographers and models. We got to Kid City around 9 and we stayed until nearly 3. In that time the kids probably got to about eight jobs.
While the kids had TONS of fun, it was a bit of a bummer for the teachers as we had to sit outside all day. This is where the language barrier can be a bit of an annoyance. I tried to follow my girls into the 'doctor training' and was shooed away. I tried my hardest to get, telling the lady I was their teacher and they had to let me in. I was not about to lose my kids! However, I soon figured out none of the teachers/parents there were allowed to go with their kids. Supposedly it was so the kids could be more independent. I wish I could have gone in with my kids to watch and take pictures. I would have had a hard time interfering, as I don't speak any Vietnamese and would have no clue what was being said. After job one the girls and boys went to the same jobs together so I was happy to have the company of my teacher's assistant, Anh. It made the day of sitting in the sweltering sun go by much faster. And while I didn't get to take pictures of them in most the jobs, with some jobs they went outside so I got to snap some photos!
It's been a couple weeks since I have blogged and there has been so much going on. For instance, last week the kids had their first field trip of the year to a place called Kid City. It was organized by the Vietnamese staff, so going into the field trip I really didn't know a whole lot about what the day would consist of, but it ended up being such a great day.
Kid City is a place where kids learn all about tons of different jobs. They go through 'training' and they can earn money to spend on places like the 'spa' or a place where they can make ice cream. I was expecting this to be a small, indoor place. Boy, was I wrong! Kid City is HUGE! It is all outside and each job is inside. There probably 30 jobs for the kids to try. Everything from firefighters and doctors to photographers and models. We got to Kid City around 9 and we stayed until nearly 3. In that time the kids probably got to about eight jobs.
While the kids had TONS of fun, it was a bit of a bummer for the teachers as we had to sit outside all day. This is where the language barrier can be a bit of an annoyance. I tried to follow my girls into the 'doctor training' and was shooed away. I tried my hardest to get, telling the lady I was their teacher and they had to let me in. I was not about to lose my kids! However, I soon figured out none of the teachers/parents there were allowed to go with their kids. Supposedly it was so the kids could be more independent. I wish I could have gone in with my kids to watch and take pictures. I would have had a hard time interfering, as I don't speak any Vietnamese and would have no clue what was being said. After job one the girls and boys went to the same jobs together so I was happy to have the company of my teacher's assistant, Anh. It made the day of sitting in the sweltering sun go by much faster. And while I didn't get to take pictures of them in most the jobs, with some jobs they went outside so I got to snap some photos!
Ready to go!
How cute are these boys?!?!
Getting ready to take off!
Cutie!
The ladies of 2B!
So excited to be a firefighter!
They got to ride in a fire truck...
... and put out a fire!
Lovin' it!
So cool
My favorite part of the day was definitely when the kids dressed as fire fighters. I also loved the spa and surprisingly all the boys loved it too! Sadly for that it was hard to get pictures because they were inside and my camera had died so I was down to my iPhone. I hope to go on more field trips this year, my kids were absolute angels and they had a blast!
That's all for now, more updates to come soon!
Michelle
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