Homeschool Companion

For two girls who have longed for a dog, Sandy is such a gift! She loves being with the family all day long. We haven't had a dog before so it's still amusing to us how she wiggles into every part of our life. It's pretty dark but if you look at the lower bookshelf you will see her snuggled in tight while we do school. She's learned not to play in the school room so just uses the time to nap.

An Uninvited Dinner Guest

The other night we had fresh green salad. This isn't too common for us since cleaning lettuce is so very time consuming. We generally cook our greens - and they are super yummy that way but Sherm and I were so enjoying our Fresh Salad. Sherm was so curious where I found fresh salad and I was telling him all about the new store that sells it in a bag called "European Salad". Just as we were pushing big wads of salads into our mouths I noticed The Visitor and screamed! Our visitor had made it through my so called rigorous washing and still landed happily on our plate still munching away. He was just traveling about. We didn't finish the salad that night.

Beautiful Allison

Yes, she's in her pajamas outside. She found the new thermals and loves them.

Happy Birthday Hannah

Hannah turned 6 this past week. She's been dreaming of Barbies all year but I so hesitated to ever purchase one of those dolls! Finally, Sherm and I agreed we'd get her one. Little did we know her friends also got her some so now there is a collection of four Barbies in our home and lots of fun play going round. She loves being six and is doing more chores round the house and is also determined to eat gobs until it results in her being tall 'just like Barbie'. Well see...

Changes at the Zoo

Allison and I went on a date to the zoo the other day. There are signs of progress all around us in Hanoi and the zoo is no exception. The elephant house is being upgraded and it appears the aviaries are getting a makeover too. I think I was most interested in signs of progress for the average joe. A few years ago, not many people had their own camera so photographers like the lady picture above with the SLR  would do brisk business by taking your photo, then having it developed, laminated and framed (not unlike US amusement parks). As in many developing countries, there was a technological leapfrog past film cameras to the point where many families have a digital camera or smart phone with a camera. But don't feel too bad for the freelance photographers: I even saw one of them with a digital SLR! so they're getting a slice of the progress pie too.

Allison liked the elephants and the hippo the best. We ate Peking Duck-flavoured chips, which are actually pretty good.

Allison had such a full and fun day that she fell asleep at the dinner table. (Well, ok, she didn't really. This picture is from another night, but you gotta admit, it does make for a nice ending.) - sc

New Family Member

Meet Sandy!
Sandy is the newest member of our family.  The girls have been wanting a dog for years but we haven't had a place where it would be suitable to keep one.  Our new place has a back yard so we told the girls we'd get a dog when we got back to VN and got settled in.  I was thinking I'd go to Thailand and get a large family friendly dog but a couple days after arriving this little dog kept barking at me whenever I'd go get my motorbike from the parking garage.  Sandy, formerly with a VNese name she nor I remember, lived in the parking garage on a 3ft chain for the last 8 years.  She was filthy as you can imagine.  She lived, pottied, ate and slept in the same 3ft of space.   The reason she was chained up was because she was a Japanese breed and that makes her valuable.  How sad. (Actually we just found out that she is a "Cavalier King Charles Spaniel" - a big fancy name for a tiny dog! - sc)

Now she is often found on Sherm's pillow.  But don't worry, she's all cleaned up, got her shots, de-flead and is so very loving!  She craves attention and gets plenty.  Right now she is out at the park with Hannah and Allison.  They are all three dressed up as princesses.  Sandy is wearing her pink chiffon cape.  The girls can do anything to this dog and she happily complies.

She is not potty trained yet so her bouts in the house are only a couple hrs at a time.  But she's catching on.

Vietnam Dong

This afternoon  I was at the bank and I was astounded by the amount of cash going around.  Bricks and bricks of cash were being passed back and forth from tellers and customers.  Can you imagine living in a cash society where checks and credit cards don't exist?  Debit cards were introduced a couple years ago and people do tend to do direct deposit more frequently but really most things are done in cash still: rent, purchasing a house, hospital bills, buying a motorbike, etc!  So when you see a poor frail looking granny with her cone hat on, don't assume her little plastic bag just contains a fish from the market.  She could have three bricks of 500,000 Dong in there.  Plus she could probably karate chop your leg off!

The largest bill now is the 500,000 pictured above.  It's worth about $28.  The money'''s called Dong but pronounced Dome.

And if you have a gambling problem I don't suggest you go to the bank I went to today.  They just have stacks of money laying all around on the tables and floor, vault doors lay wide open and security seems a little lazy but then maybe the security is so discrete I couldn't detect it.