Busy Social Weekend

We had a busy schedule last weekend – two fundraisers, a couple performances, a pottery class and a frisbee tournament. It started Friday night with an NFL viewing party to raise money for the consulate soccer team (the "tiger team"). Turns out all military/diplomatic posts have free access to all the games – I guess it keeps us fully American! The next morning I got up early for another beloved American sport – ultimate frisbee. It was blazing hot and humid for the all-day tournament. Unfortunately, I had to stop out early when I pulled my hamstring diving for a loose disc – so inflexible – I'm starting yoga next week. Hopefully things will heal up in time for the Angkor Wat half marathon that we are running December 5. Since I was home early, Nikki and I headed over to the consulate charity bazaar, where each of the consulates in town was selling goods representative of their respective countries – vodka from Russia, handicrafts from Malaysia, wine from Australia, cookies and cupcakes from the US (we export obesity!)

Saturday was national teachers' day in Vietnam, so in the evening we attended an event put on by our language school. I participated in more than a few performances – a group song, a skit, and a duet with one of our friends - all in Vietnamese, of course. The song for the duet was "Con Gai" ("The Girl") and I've been working to learn the words and accompanying guitar for a few weeks now. In the end I think it was pretty successful – at least no one ran screaming from the building (it was videotaped, so I'll try to post the footage for viewing pleasure later). I also entered contests for writing a Vietnamese Essay (second place!) and a home-made thank you card for our teachers (no prize – it's me – you can use your imagination…)

We got up late on Sunday, had a leisurely brunch at "the elbow room," (yeah western-style brekky!), and then meandered around town looking for a store to buy a wedding veil. No, Nikki and I have not decided to have a second, Vietnamese-style wedding (though we are thinking about getting pictures taken). It just so happens that Nikki is the "morale officer" (aka party planner) for her section at work and one of the local staff just got engaged – Nikki is helping to celebrate by making her wear a veil all day at work and throwing her a party. After finding a place (there are wedding stores everywhere) and grabbing a soda at a street stall, we taxied across town for a pottery class. The stuff that we shipped from the US by boat STILL hasn't arrived, and we drink a lot of coffee/tea, so we decided to make mugs. The nice Japanese sensei that runs the class was awesome, and with his help, our mugs turned out pretty great. We capped off our busy weekend with a trip to the Saigon Opera House with our friend Danette, where we saw performances from a visiting Korean choir, the local Saigon choir, and the Saigon Symphony (performing Tchaikovsky – they love the Russians here).  The most interesting number was "Mamma Mia," in Swedish, performed by the Koreans, here in Vietnam – talk about a multi-cultural experience!

Short work-week this week and tomorrow we are off to explore Kuala Lumpur. Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family and hope everyone is doing well!!