Post-Taiwan

We're tired; we really are. It's all so interesting, and yet, you get back home here and you're just exhausted from so much travel. And so it goes. We're just now coming to grips with the fact that we'll be leaving here soon, or soonish, and trying to figure out what it all means, what it has meant, to live here. Maybe you can never really know until you're back home.

There are things I really miss, not necessarily this order:

1. Not sweating every single minute of every single day and not being so cranky because of said heat
2. The Volvo, or at least being able to get where you want to go, when you want to go (see photo of Mark and kids and our current means of transportation called a xe loi)
3. My friends-- I mean, really saying things for what they are and having people understand you and find the humor in what you say and vice versa
4. Normal coffee that doesn't have to strain through a complicated little silver sieve and even then that gets all gummy and gritty at the cup's bottom and REAL cream for coffee, or rather, half and half
5. Browsing through catalogues, whether they be J.Jill or Eddie Bauer or some stupid Lillian Vernon--that was my big wind-down back home
6. Good deli sandwiches with brown mustard, leaf lettuce, and Miracle Whip on crusty bread
7. My jeans
8. Going to the thrift stores weekly or often 2-3 times a week
9. Java Junction's Turkey-Berry paninis with extra berry sauce
10. Our red plaid magic blanket and cuddling up with it on the living room couch


But things I will miss about Vietnam:

1. My first-class super-cheap amazing manicures and pedicures (see photo of my newest design)
2. The fabric market
3. Avocado shakes
4. The way the coconut tree leaves sway outside our bedroom window in the morning
5. How much every single person we've encountered in Vietnam adores our children to absolute pieces and seems to believe they can do no wrong
6. Not teaching or advising or going to meetings or being responsible for so many things
7. The little baby who lives down our lane who wears all of Lily's old clothes and who we just call "Baby"
8. Pho noodles for 50cents
9. Bright neon everywhere at night
10. Hello Kitty paraphernalia madness

love,

Anne