Welcome from another Internet Cafe

Not only did the stolen wifi signal that we were using for weeks dry up a few days ago, but today we have absolutely no internet access in our hotel lobby. So I am surrounded by twenty 12-19 year vietnamese boys that are gaming and IMing furiously in an internet cafe about 30 yards down the road from the hotel. For those of you who remember my description of the internet cafe in Ben Tre, this one is much less scary, and the proprietor is much less physically affectionate and also seems less intoxicated. The internet connection and computers are the fastest I have used in Vietnam, so that's a good thing.

Today we went this morning to a botanical garden that is about 3 blocks away from our hotel. It is a very beautiful place, but it isn't very large. The highlight for me was a cage of monkeys (would have been the highlight for everyone if the monkey cage had been cleaned out more often). The interesting thing at the botanical garden was there was this hill. One each of the four sides of the hill, there were steep stairs going up (maybe 30 vertical feet worth of stairs). When we got to the top, there were a bunch of pinwheels stuck in the round grass clearing at the top, and a black upright piano was in the middle of the clearing. There were cameras and a couple of dressed up folks, and it looked like they were shooting a music video. The question that Barbie and I had was, "who carried the piano up there?"

This afternoon I ran a few errands on behalf of Mr. Kringle while the others stayed at the hotel and rested and got crabby. I think the kids have hit the wall. Thomas and Helen are ready to come home on Friday, although they both express sadness that mom and Julia probably won't be coming just yet.

I have informed Thomas and Helen that I emailed Santa that we will be at the woman hotel in hanoi instead of at home this Christmas. I keep telling them that I hope he got the email, but it's a really busy time for him, so we'll just wait and see if anything shows up on Christmas morning.

Tomorrow three more adoptive families from our agency will arrive in Hanoi. Each of them is in the same boat as us (waiting for a visa and not knowing when they will get it.) We are having a get-together at our hotel on Christmas and I think that most of the families will be coming. We will be glad some folks from home to celebrate with.

My mom has agreed to come up and watch Thomas and Helen while I go back to work until Barbie and Julia get home. Thanks a lot, Mom! That really takes a load of worry off of our backs. Now if any of you works in the state department or in homeland security and wants to expedite our visa processing, we would be all set!

Well, I'll sign off now. Thanks for reading and we look forward to all of us seeing all of you in person.

Merry Christmas Eve Eve to you all!

Doug