Mikaela's Lasts

Everyday this week I have said to Kaela "this is your last Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday etc." as we have driven to school.  She finally snapped on about Thursday and said "stop you are sounding like dad' - I am not sure what that means but come Friday I had to say "this is your last day of school".  For her school has finished except for exams which start next Wednesday, and continue to the 18th of May.  For her the journey has not been an easy one in the last two years. Her parents, thought it wise to drag her to a third world non English speaking communist country, sorry socialist country to finish school. Though that sounds something like parental negligence - she has handled it in a way far beyond her years.  She has adapted, she has learnt tolerance and acceptance, she has formed friendships which will stay with her forever not to mention her advanced chopstick skills - all this while studying a curriculum that is so different from our own.

Halloween 2012

 When you child goes off to Kindergarten, a school journey begins - that at times is joyful, at other times frustrating, how many times over the years have we said "just do your homework" or "I don't care that you will never need it again - just do it", or "it is due tomorrow!!" or for me "that's it we are going home".  But all too soon it comes to an end. The "all too soon" seems to be the parents perspective but for the kids they are more then ready to move on.  But moving on in my family has been taken to an extreme.  Zander "moved" on to study in the States, Kaela will "move" on to study in Australia!! and my family will be reduced to 4.  Whilst I am not looking forward to that, our children have the right to follow their dreams.  Speaking with another expat dad who once said to me that "home will always be wherever our family gathers around the table" (thanks Noel) - so it is this advice that I hope and pray our family will gather regularly - and hence be home together.  Good luck with your exams Kaela -we are proud of you.

Pho anyone or should I say everyone?

No we are not at a wedding but rather at the local Pho Shop for lunch...and yes there are two different  brides - only in Viet Nam is this a regular scene.

Ho Chi Minh City School Swimming Gala

It's Thursday night and 7 schools have joined together for a swimming carnival, in a 6 lane pool I will add.  Our school has no pool, the only swim team is the squad of students that Kaela trained as part of her IB Community Service, and a group of boys from  the middle school.  But what we lacked in expertise and experience was made up for in effort, determination and team spirit. Swimming in Viet Nam is not really seen as a sport - it's more something you do when the sun goes down (heaven forbid you get get a  tan), therefore schools that have the most Western students have a better swim squad.  At AIS there are 4 Western students competing, need I say more.   But instead of using the 4 Western Kids to swim everything our school gave everyone a go.  Last year we had a squad of 2 (Kaela and Bella) this year we had a squad of 25! and everyone had a few swims.  Relays  teams did not consist of just the fastest but rather they gave everyone a chance to swim.  As a swimming parent (I guess an ex swimming parent as I have little, to no involvement with Zander's swimming except in spirit - and  yes you can still get nervous for your swimming child from a distance, which has you waking in the middle of the night to check results) it is a humbling experience.  As a parent I am very proud of my children's efforts in the pool but I am more proud that they were part of a team, a real team, a team that for me defined the word - comments from my children such as "we let 'so and so'  swim that because they only had one swim" or "we let 'so and so' swim that because they can do 25m" or " we split the good swimmers so we have more relay teams" show me how important team spirit is.  We, as Western cultures, prize those who come first but today I saw how helping each other might make you come 6th but everyone wins.

Easter Sunday

Easter is not a huge celebration in Viet Nam. In fact when Bella sent her 
friend a Happy Easter text, the reply was 'what's Easter?' There are a few chocolate Easter eggs around in the western food shops but that's about it. With this in mind church services are not abundant, well not in English anyway.  Notre Dame, the big Catholic Cathedral in Ho Chi Minh has the only English Service at 930, so that is where we headed this morning.  Notre Dame is an elegant Cathedral in the middle of Ho Chi Minh which was built in the 1880's by the French.  Though not as beautiful as St Mary's in Sydney it is still a beautiful old building with a lovely Church Service on Sundays.  Surprisingly the Cathedral was packed, yes there were Western people but by far the majority of the 1,000 odd congregation were Vietnamese, it does make me wonder why they choose the English service!Anyway after mass we headed off to Au Parc, a Moroccan French Restaurant for a gorgeous brunch.   The 36 degree heat had us heading home after a short walk, very full but with a little bit of room for some chocolate eggs.  Happy Easter everyone.

Dinner Tonight

There we were sitting have coffee, as we do most Saturday mornings, deciding what to have for dinner.  It's not that we are lazy - Bella and I have already been to the gym, Bella has now gone off to Math tutoring, (Saturday morning tutoring makes us sound so Asian)  Josh has been to soccer (he is very sweaty as you would be after playing soccer in 30 degree heat) with Matthew, and Mikaela - well she is still locked in her room studying - Saturday coffee is our indulgent time  to just stop.
But back to dinner.  Matthew had cooked a wonderful pulled pork roast a few weeks ago, that he was telling Red and Iggy about last night, so we decided to do it again.
Josh walked home and  Matthew and I headed over to the markets to stock up for dinner - 6 stalls later and 285,000 VND about 13 AUD, we have all that we need.  This is what we bought:

2kg Pork Shoulder - 180,000 - $8.00;
6 Bread rolls 10,000 (50 Cents);
5 Mangoes 45,000 ($2.00);
3 carrots, 3 cucumbers, 1 onion 15,000 (80 cents); 2 Chinese cabbages 10,000 (50 Cents);
2 peeled pineapples 25,000 ($1.00).

The Pork is now in the oven for the next 6 hours - and we are now heading off for Pho.

Post Script to "Spring Break"

THE hair straightener blow up on the second day!!

Spring break

Finally Spring break is here. We have decided to go back to Nha Trang for a number of reasons; but first let me remind you we live in Viet Nam with teenagers. Life with children, particularly teenagers has a direction all of its own.  I watch other teachers at school who travel at every possible opportunity  but we only travel on extended breaks because of homework, sport and social lives, not ours but the kids. 
But back to Spring break. We chose to go back to Nha Trang really for Mikaela, with exams in less then a month she is on study lock down. With that in mind we didn't want to travel to somewhere new, we felt that would be too mean - so Nha Trang it is, mind you I am not complaining -  a few days at the beach in a nice resort is certainly a great way to spend time. The fact that Matthew has just told me their is a cyclone due to hit the middle of Viet Nam in the next few days is dampening my enthusiasm a tad but at least we will get a chance to swim in the ocean even if the weather is not great.
Anyway teenagers and travel - when they collected me from work Bella was on her phone madly ringing and texting all number of people -  she had left one of her bags at school.  Thinking there was something vitally important in the bag that warrants such frenzy I had to ask.  Her answer "I left my green bag at school and it's got my hair straightener in it".  Now as a mother of teenager girls with curly hair I am  fully aware of the importance of a hair straightener - but before I could think I said "seriously, you are asking someone to drive to the airport (which is a good 40 minutes from school) to bring you your hair straightener - don't be ridiculous just live without it". OK probably not the best thing to say to a teenage girl but really who is going to drive that far to give someone their hair straightener?  The answer another teenage girl who totally understood Bella's dilemma.  Thankfully we arrived very early for our flight because after we checked in we spent 45 minutes outside the airport waiting for a hair straightener!