85 Degrees and Barbie becomes a negotiator

This is Doug for Barbie.

She is having a pretty good time in Hoi An. She says that the city is beautiful and so is the beach. On Saturday morning, her and Julia went to the beach. It was warm and sunny and beautiful. Unfortunately, Julia refused to be put down on the sand and was quite nervous about the ocean. So, Barbie had to hold her most of the time. Finally, Barbie rented a beach chair so that she could put Julia down.

Barbie told me that she was thinking that it would be great to have me with her at Hoi An so we could experience it together. Then she started thinking that if I were there I would be crabby and continuously complaining about how hot it was and getting a headache from the bright sun. I think she then decided that maybe it was ok without me.

Barbie checked into the hotel at Hoi An on her Friday afternoon. She went out and saw some sights and had some supper. She came back to try and get Julia to bed early, but when she got to the room she learned that the AC didn't work and the thermometer in the room read 28 degrees Celsius (about 82 Fahrenheit). She went down to the desk and told them. They told her that they would give her a fan for the night. She said that it would be too hot for the baby (of course the baby has spent her whole life in such temperatures!) They then said that she could try the guest house that they had across the street, but she went and the bed situation wasn't right. Another couple just left the hotel and they offered her their room, but something wasn't very good about that room either. So, the manager said that they had a sister hotel across town that was nicer that had a room, but it would be $45 per night instead of $30. She said that she wanted to pay $30. They said $40, but she said she wouldn't pay more than $35. After awhile they agreed to her price (after she verified that it had a window).

So, Barbie took a taxi to the other property and the room was nicer. She had a big bed a baby crib, and even a high chair. There was a window and the A/C worked. She was happy. She went to the window to take a look at her view and opened the curtains to see a stone wall within arm's length outside the window. It was getting late and she decided that Julia really needed to get some sleep.

They had a pretty good sleep, until 3AM. Then something in the crib broke and that woke up Julia. Barbie didn't want to mess with trying to fix the bed in the middle of the night and so she brought Julia in bed with her. This led Julia to believe that it was time to play, so it took them an hour or so to get back to sleep. The next night (Saturday night), the crib was fixed and Julia slept quite well, but Barbie didn't sleep the greatest as she was congested.

Today (Sunday) they are going to the beach again in the morning and in the afternoon they are going to some sort of cultural show with cultural song and dance. She will be going back to Hanoi on Monday afternoon.

She says to tell you that she misses you all and longs for the day when she can give some good news. I'm with her.

The rest of us are doing ok. Today we went to our favorite Vietnamese family run donut shop, worked more on Thomas' make up math homework, went to the library (and returned a book that we found this week that was lost since october--we had already paid the library for it), and had some friends (Bill, Carol, and family) over (they brought ham--bearers of ham are always welcome here!)

The Christmas tree is still up here at home and is waiting for Barbie and Julia. Hopefully soon.

Take care and thanks for checking in.

Doug (for Barbie and Julia)