My Turn

My turn to check in. The kids are doing so well. I worried they would be overwhelmed by the noise and commotion of daily life, would be terrified by the traffic, or would feel violated by people staring at them and touching their hair. But, they are taking it in stride. Alison and Maya truly love it here. They didn't have one second of adjustment but just jumped right in and are hungry to soak it all up. They have truly amazed me. Serena has been significantly less impressed and wants to come home. But, she is easing her way in and as the jet lag goes away has been finding the good in this adventure.

We live in a relatively quiet neighborhood - quiet compared to other areas of Hanoi but compared to Fort Collins makes Old Town look sleepy. There is constant activity out on the street with motorbikes buzzing by and people selling produce and eating their meals right on the sidewalk. Daily life here is much more out in the open and in your face.

We are lucky to have found this apartment where the kids can relax and feel at home. They say they forget they are in Hanoi when we are in the apartment which makes me laugh because even though we are on the 8th floor and the windows are shut you can always hear the nonstop horn honking down on the street.

We are loving the food!! There is a quite a bit of French influence here left over from colonialism. We are loving it - crepes, baguettes, pain of chocolat, croissant. Every morning we buy delicious bread outside our building for 10 cent. We're going to miss this on Bennett Road. Martin and I are loving, loving, loving Vietnamese coffee. It is strong - stronger than American espresso and has a slightly bitter almost carmel flavor. Yum! And the most delicious treat is drinking it on ice with sweetened condensed milk while I eat a little bread and cheese.

And speaking of food, here was a little lesson I got on our fist trip out to ead. We went out to get Pho - a noodle soup which is the traditional breakfast. There was a little bucket of wooden chopsticks unwrapped and washed but clearly used before. I figured I'd just use my spoon - it is soup after all. Well this old woman came by and saw what I was doing. She looked utterly disgusted that a grown woman like myself and no idea how to eat. She put the chopsticks in my soup, Put my spoon in my left hand, then put my chopsticks in my right hand and pushed my head down low close to the bowls and motioned to me to eat alternating with my chopsticks and spoon. She'd come back from time to time to check and make sure Martin and I were doing it right. She eventually nodded her head satisfied. Ha! I now know how to eat soup and I also carry my own chopsticks in my purse.

Thanks for following along and all the comments on the kids posts. They are working hard and it means a lot to them! Being a food obsessed person, I'll leave you with a few pictures of some of the yummy food we've been eating. BTW we have thrown vegetarianish ways out the window for this trip - we would miss to much goodness.

A little bit of heaven in a cup.


Loving the bread!


Maya ate 3 plates of these. :)


My absolute favorite so far - squid and green mango salad. YUMMMMMMMMM


Probably shouldn't be letting the kids be eating raw veggies, but Alison loved these fresh spring rolls. I don't know why they are better than at home but they are. Maybe it's just being here that makes them taste better.


This is Maya's speed - fried dough. lol



This is bun cha. Yum yum double yum. Alison and Serena devoured this yummy dish of ground pork and a rich sweet broth.