Adjusting...

Hi everyone from Anne. As you can see, it's become harder to get Internet access and stay current with the blog. We do have a phone line now in our house (and an old ancient black rotary dial phone), but supposedly the internet connection will be a while. We are adjusting, and there are ups and downs. Lily is having the hardest time which surprised us because we thought for sure Hudson would. She cries a lot, gets a lot of mosquito bites, whines constantly and is generally pretty discombobulated. We now have a cleaning person who comes to our house 3 days/week, plus a nanny who comes every day for four hours, so the kids (and we) are getting used to that. The heat is difficult. When we went to bed last night it was 84 degrees. There are points in the day when it's so hot I simply won't go outside. I have to fight the urge not to go sit in the air-conditioned bedrooms all day. We did find a cool old colonial coffee shop just down the street that has air con and wi-fi (supposedly--you have to walk around with your laptop on the balcony to get a signal) but we have become instant regulars there. Mark and I are now able to communicate a bit in Vietnamese. Can catch a cyclo or a motorcycle to get us around, negotiate payments, etc. We ate at our first restaurant with absolutely no English on the menu and ended up with delicious noodles with beef and basil. Not too bad.

Our neighborhood is a lane and another small alley off a busy street clustered with bridal gown shops and glam photo studios (it's known as the wedding neighborhood). We have a little store where we can buy snacks and coffee and small yogurts, plus the French bread man comes down our street twice a day so we always have fresh bread. When he calls out, it sounds like he's saying "ravioli," so we joked for awhile that he was the ravioli salesman. Hudson found out from his nanny that he's actually the bread seller.

Mark and I both got bikes from the university with little kid seats on the back. Today was our first day out and I was pretty terrified. There's pretty much traffic mayhem at all times here, and scooters and bikes and trucks come right at you on the wrong side of the street. I'm sure there's a system, and I'm sure we'll figure it out, but for now we hug pretty close to the sidewalks and don't take the kids out yet.

We also bought a patio table and chairs to sit outside in our little courtyard, which we did last night. We have a plum tree strung with Christmas tree lights that flash, so Hudson knew it was the right house for us.

But it's hard. Sometimes I just get so tired and exhausted from the heat, and from the difficulty of getting through the days. If we didn't have two small kids, it wouldn't be so hard, but they need a lot right now and understanably so. We declared this afternoon Lily Day so she said she wants to go ride a motorcycle. Then we'll eat dinner down at one of the tourist joints along the waterfront.

I found the big swimming pool and swam laps yesterday. That was a feat. It's in an old crumbling military barracks. Everyone stared me at the entire time. But it felt so good to be immersed in all that blue water.

Anyway, photos to follow. We may have to go back to our hotel where the wifi is more reliable to do that. For now, it's great to hear from you.

Our Phone Number: 071. 834667 (you'd have to look up the country code)