Greetings from the lobby of the Woman Hotel

This is our third Sunday evening in Hanoi and it is three weeks today that we left Minnesota for Vietnam. All said, we are quite happy with our trip so far. Things have worked out for us, we have been comfortable, no one has been really sick (except for perhaps one or two quick trips to the WC that were easily remedied with some OTC medication), and we have seen and experienced some neat things. Our new daughter seems to be adjusting fairly well to her new family and home (our hotel), and the older kids have held up pretty well.

We are hopeful that we will hear from US Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS) soon hearing positive news of Julia's visa pre-approval. We will of course update the blog with any information regarding that as we get it.

Today Barbie's family (her mom, dad, and sister) left to return to Minnesota. We will miss having them around as it was helpful to have a few additional hands, babysitters, and english-speaking voices around.

So today was pretty low-key for us. We went to an English language bookstore here today to look for souvenir books in the morning. On the way back to the Woman Hotel (as it is sometimes called) we had the cabbie take us to the nearby Fivimart (supermarket). I went to the bakery outside of the Fivimart (as I do most every day) and bought four croissants and a baguette for our lunch. The girl behind the counter knows what I will ask for at this point.

After lunch we stayed in the hotel all afternoon. We took turns taking a kid to a different place outside of the hotel so that the bigger kids get some time apart from the others and with a parent 1:1. That seemed to work pretty well.

For supper we took a taxi to a restaurant in the old quarter called the "Golden Lantern". The food was fine, but it wasn't as good and was more expensive than our best find so far, "The Ladybird". We won't be going back there, I suspect. We walked down the road for a little bit because it was a street that sold toys. We were able to find a toy for Julia and finally we located some bubbles for the kids (after a 3-week long search!) We will break those out tomorrow and see what Julia thinks about them.

It just struck me right now what a dull post this is today. I suspect that many of you have stopped reading at this point. I don't blame you. I'm bored myself. Maybe I should change the subject...

We get the internet signal in the lobby of the hotel, so when we are typing the blog we are sitting in the hotel. Right now it is 9pm, and I expect that sometime in the next 30 minutes or so, a couple of tour buses will pull into the hotel. Every night there are 2-3 tour buses that pull in here. IT is really quite interesting, because I don't think that there are hardly ANY Vietnamese that stay at this hotel. It is mostly full of other Asian, European, and Australian travelers (mostly Asian). I know that there have been folks from China, Malaysia, Korea, Singapore, Germany, and Australia here at the hotel. The Asian folks even make more noise in a hotel than a group of Americans! There seem to be different sensibilities regarding how much noise is ok to make in a hotel.

One other thing that we did that was kind of interesting. Last night (for the last dinner with Barbie's family), we went to a restaurant called KOTO (www.streetvoices.com.au), which is an acronym for Know One Teach One. This restaurant is run by a non-governmental Australia/Vietnamese organization. The restaurant is a training ground for underprivileged street kids to learn the restaurant and hospitality business. They have a local training center here and they go through the program for 18 months before they are fully trained. The program has a 100% placement record for its graduates. KOTO serves vietnamese and western food, and you wouldn't know that it is a special program (great food, great atmosphere, and great service). George W. Bush ate there when he came to visit Hanoi.

The director of the program walked in while we were eating and Julia gave him the raspberries when he came in, which he gave her right back. Later, I was outside with her while she was fussing and we were waiting on dessert to come, and I got a chance to talk with the gentleman. He was Australian and had done a lot of work with UNICEF before he started to work on this project. He has lived for 10 years in Vietnam and has worked with KOTO for a few years. It was very encouraging to see such a special place and I think that we will go back before we leave (the kids really like the french fries there).

Tomorrow our plan is to check our email regularly (hoping for good news), maybe visit a couple of nearby temples or pagodas, maybe walk a couple of blocks to the Ho Chi Minh botanical garden complex, and then check our email.

Well...I'm sure that most of you (except maybe for my brother, the GOAH) have better things to do than to read my rambling, so I'll stop at this point. Take care and check back tomorrow. Barbie will write then, and if not, I promise to come up with better material.

Peace,
Doug