Home Sweet Home (almost!)

After looking at 9 houses (the hassles, the miscommunications, the stress!), we have finally found a place to live. It is a very cute little 2-story house on a very quiet side street. Our address is 123/30 Tran Hung Dao, Can Tho, Vietnam. It is such a tremendous relief to have found something so good and perfect for us, esp. after looking at some real clunkers. I think Mark and I were both starting to fall into a funk over it.

Anyway, it's a 2 BR with a nice little "yard" (though you can see that it is currently used as parking for the owners' scooters) and a big kitchen and even an extra little "dirty" kitchen off the back. It comes with a washing machine, cable TV, and internet access, although that has been very hit or miss here for us. The neighborhood is great, lush with trees and plants, and our bedroom upstairs opens out onto a nice balcony (I'm including a photo of that view). There are several professors from Can Tho U that live here with kids and an Aussie guy next door to us. The little alleyway photo is of our "street" which is two turns off a "real" street (if you look at the photo, our house is down on the far left--the little path ends in a dead end, which is nice.) Again, it's quiet and cozy seeming and it also has a study where, the owner told me, someone here once wrote a novel while looking out the window at the moon. So I'm shooting for that.

My favorite detail: Winnie the Pooh tiles in the bathroom and Winnie the Pooh sheets. Also, the kids' room has a window that looks out into the kitchen. The kids think it's the greatest. They are so eager to settle somewhere, especially Hudson. They actually love sharing a room at the hotel, so I think it will be fine, though Lily has been kind of a bully to Hudson.

Anyway, it's a great house, thank god. Funny that the very last one we looked at (we had been trying very hard not to panic and weep!) was THE one. Anyway, the only downside is that we can't move in for 4 days, so will have to entertain ourselves some other way while we wait. Tonight we're going on a ferris wheel ride down at the park, and tomorrow may go out and find a boat excursion to see the floating markets. I think we will all sleep well now that we know we're not homeless!

That's all for now.