Welcome to Saigon!

We made it! From DC to San Francisco to Maui to Hong Kong and finally to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City. It took many months of preparation and two weeks of travel, but we have finally arrived at our new home in the southern part of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. We've only been here for a little over two days, but Nikki and I think we're going to like it here.

First or all, our apartment is amazing. Three bedrooms, a big kitchen, and a ton of windows. From our living room we can look out over a big park and a busy street with hundreds and hundreds of scooters. There's a pool and a rooftop where we can BBQ too. We are right downtown and there are a ton of really cool restaurants and shops. We've been exploring with the help of our fantastic sponsors – Robert and Kong – who have been making sure our transition goes smoothly. Yesterday (Saturday), they took us on a tour of the city, including Ben Thanh Market, which had everything you can imagine for sale. My favorite part was the seafood section. They had clams, squid, snails, eels, and a million kinds of fish. We've done a little exploring by ourselves too, and are slowly learning to cross the street. Here's the method: you wait until traffic lightens up a bit, and then just start walking slowly and steadily across the street while cars, scooters, and bicycles go around you. The city is an interesting mix of old and new, with both historical buildings and holdovers from the French, as well as new malls and skyscrapers. Looking forward to exploring further!

On Friday, I went with Nikki to the consulate for orientation. Everyone is sooo friendly and welcoming! There's this great sense of community, and people seem to hang out outside of work quite a bit – both locals and Americans. It sounds like the work will be challenging for Nikki at times, but that people are very supportive of one another (her supervisors also have great attitudes). I'm getting to know people too, and by our second day had joined the consulate soccer team. We had our first game yesterday (against the Indonesian consulate) and I didn't embarrass myself too much.

Tomorrow Nikki and I start a language immersion program, so we'll be back to improving our Vietnamese skills. We've got three weeks of that before Nikki starts her formal job. By then, I'm hoping to have a few more leads on environmental opportunities and I've already got some great contacts to follow up on. We will be sure to keep you all updated!