This is just a quick entry to let everyone know we made it to Ha Noi. The last week has been a daze, especially this past weekend. We finished our training, taught our last classes, tried our best to go out with our new friends in Chiang Mai and VIA, stayed up late packing and deciding how the heck to get our luggage down to 15 kilograms. It’s been hectic, but that’s just life.

What’s crazy is that I decided to do some catching up on one of my friends to see how she was doing. I ended up finding out that her baby died. I don’t know if it was during the birthing process or what, but it was quite sudden and very much recent. I was thinking about her that week and how happy she was when she sent us the news. As soon as I go to find out how the baby’s doing, I get this news. My friend seems to be doing fine for the moment. She’s a strong-willed person and very much prayerful. Even so, please keep her and her family in your prayers and hearts.

We really don’t know what’s in store for us at any given moment, do we? Take good care of yourselves, everyone.

I never thought I would say this, but I am having programming withdrawals. I could program on my computer but I want to be able to upload it to this site. I can’t even make changes for the other sites. This could be a problem. I’m going to have to figure something out. I should just run through some tutorials to keep my mind busy.

What are you currently learning for fun?

Me? Flash… again.

On Thursday evening, we decided to get some dinner from a food stall that sold noodles- very, very tasty. It reminded us of Vietnamese pho. I can’t wait to sink into my first bowl of pho when we arrive in Hanoi.

After a nice bowl of noodle soup, we headed across the street to Cozi for some drinks. They have a very good special of 3 Leo beers for 100 Baht. This special seems to run every day. We had a great time getting to know each other. The three of us are going to be in Viet Nam for our posts. Some for a year, others for two years.

Olivia wanted to brainstorm ideas for possible jobs she could do to earn money on the side while volunteering. Of course, this was going to be in addition to her food stall that she wants to start. I only agreed to give her more ideas if I could work at her food stall when I visited Hue. Here was our list of potential jobs:

1. English Tutor
2. Bartender
3. Hotel Receptionist
4. Radio DJ
5. Voice-Over Work
6. Open a Wine Bar
7. Weekend Tour Guide
8. Vietnamese Soap Opera Star Playing the Mute Girl (I would play the Viet Kieu with long hair)
9. Movie Star
10. Cover Band Singer (and Guitarist, when we learn how to play the guitar)
11. Model (we think Candice has the jump on us with this one)

As you can see, we know how to brainstorm. Maybe it was the Leo talking. Either way, those are pretty darn good ideas if you ask me.

You: “Do you think these are…?”

Me: “Yes, they are.”

After looking into our future moonlighting jobs, we talked about life in general- family, music, relationships, food, and a big part of our lives now: VIA.

The past near two weeks in Chiang Mai has been really great. Everyone here is simply amazing. It seems that we’ve found our flock to fly with. Everyone seems to be here for themselves, but to give all of themselves in this endeavor. I think a lot of times we grow accustomed to the status quo within us and over time we don’t even recognize it. You know what? I should have blogged this the night I came home from the bar because it was really good and I now can’t remember everything we talked about. I just remember the feeling. It made me feel really good about everything- myself, my friends, VIA, and this next part in my life. You’re just going to have to trust me on this one.

rice
with
pork
Korean
style
twenty
Baht
so
so
good