Happy Boxing Day

I wouldn't usually think much about it being boxing day here, but I am reminded by watching the Australia Network that today is indeed boxing day and it seems that there is quite a big cricket match and some important yachting race. They show the cricket scores on the news, and I really don't have any idea after looking at the scores who has won and who has lost. The other night they were interviewing some cricket coach and he was using jargon (presumably cricket-jargon) and it sounded so funny that a person would talk so seriously in this jargon about a sport. I suppose it must be like what an alien would think if she were to land in the US and watch ESPN.

That aside, we have no news of visa progress. We spent the morning looking for a birthday present for Julia. Her birthday isn't soon, but we are trying to gather a Vietnamese souvenir for each of her birthdays that she celebrates with us (up through 18). Today was a misty, cool day. Of course here people were dressed very warmly. All of Helen's long pants were dirty and in the laundry, so she went in a short dress with long sleeve shirt and a jacket. We were chastised vehemently about how she (and Julia for that matter) were dressed. It was obvious to us that neither of them were really cold. It was interesting what different places think about what constitutes proper care for children. In the US, if a child is not in a car seat, you might be strung up, but here, children stand between their parents' legs on motor scooter seats and no one cares. Interesting.

Tonight we had supper with the same folks that we went to the park with yesterday (the ones with two kids, one 6 and one 2.5). The kids were a little bit wild, but it was a decent meal. I had cha ca, or grilled fish, which is a famous type of food to eat here. Interestingly enough, we were on Cha Ca street (which means, Grilled Fish Street). Many of the streets here are named for what they sell on the streets. Please forgive me if we already told you about this street naming convention, as I am running out of material to talk about.

I think that we have said that Helen, Thomas, and I are leaving Hanoi for Minnesota on Sunday. Barbie and Julia will stay until they get her visa. This is quite a bummer for our family, but I am confident that Barbie can do all that she needs to do to make it over here, and with my mom's help, I think we'll make it in Minnesota just fine.

To be honest with you, however, we are pretty disappointed, and of course we are sad to be splitting up the family. It is the best option that we have right now, so we will move ahead. We are still so glad to have Julia in our family, and she is opening up and really becoming one of the gang. She is a spunky, funny, smart, ACTIVE, little girl. Every time she does something that she shouldn't and I correct her, she thinks that the way to fix it is to pucker up her lips, screw up her face, and give me a kiss. It's hilarious.

Tomorrow I think that we might go look at the hotel that the other families from our agency are staying in. There are some pros to our current hotel, but it might be good for Barbie to have some more company closer to her after we leave. Regardless, Barbie and Julia will move our of our long-time room on Sunday and either move into a smaller room at the woman hotel or look at moving over to the Sunny Hotel. We'll see how that goes.

Well...I hope that you all enjoy Boxing Day. There's no need to be ashamed if you don't know what Boxing Day is. I checked on the internet just before posting this note. It turns out that this day gets its name from the need to rid the house of empty boxes the day after Christmas (http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/boxingday.asp). Please email this piece of information along to all the people in your email address book. I did and I recieved a check from Bill Gates for $101,327!*

Thanks for checking in. Hope you have a great day.

Doug

* Please forgive me for this poor attempt at humor. I'm strapped for material.