ultimate lin
One of my favorite people in the world came to visit me. She brought me tons of games: twister, poker, scrabble, and uno. She also tried to make me exercise. Lin, what are you thinking girl?
Ultimate Frisbee is tiring.... I lasted oh..... 10 minutes....
No! I am not getting back on that field!
Just for you, Lin... just for you :)
Ultimate Frisbee gang at the RMIT playing grounds.
Eating, eating, eating. Definitely one of our favorite pastimes. Munching on "ban xeo" and "oc" :)
a city aglow
With the usual crew absent from Saigon, I spent my Christmas amidst the craziness that was the city center. My cousin had to walk me across the streets as I held my breath, motorbikes on all sides, barely any room to move. But I survived! Whew....
The Notre Dame church of Vietnam.
Inside the church.
The Nativity.
The crowd outside.
Even more people!
Check out all the vendors: balloons, blinking lights, and dough sculptures.
Enjoying the madness :)
They also had things for kids. A showcase of their artwork. So cute!
Being creative... Its good when they start young.
My cousin, the photographer.
They even planted a rice field in the middle of the park!
A shower of lights. So pretty!
christmas eve potluck
The house was a busy place on Christmas Eve. Friends wandered in for some home cooked food and good company.
We made lasagna :) Steven brought steak and Giap made us a salad. Yum!
Steven and Trang
Giap and Xuan in from the rain.
A surprise visit by Steph and her grandmother.
Giap gave her some wine to try. It didn't go down well...
While I spent some catch-up time with Steph before she headed off on her adventures again.
Had lollipops for our sweet teeth :)
Bao dropped in with her cute new bag.
Ladies dancing the night away.
Checking out the lights around town.
Ending the night in a festive mood at 3am in the morning :) Both Bao and Patricia headed off to Cambodia a few hours later.
Our fellow revelers and traffic in the streets.
math, science, & some sugar
This past weekend, a couple us girls decided to do numbers night....
which basically equates to us dressing up in a cute 'number' a.k.a 'outfit' and heading out on the town. It was a long night. We spend an hour driving into District 8 to see some Christmas decorations only to find that we were too early and they were not up yet. Then had some 'che', before going to Lush and meeting up with Giap and a few of his friends.
Looking for a bigger dance floor, we went to Yang Bar, which up to a week ago was the quintessential 'gay bar'. Word must have spread about its ambience and music because this week it was packed with the rest of Saigon. The 'in' crowd was milling around downstairs while we headed upstairs, finding a nice area all to ourselves to dance without being bumped every which way.
On Sunday, had a close encounter of a different kind at Sandrine's closing, Astronauts!!!
Tea anyone?
Yes, please and and bit o' suga.
The event was catered by Sugar Street Cafe and they served darn good chocolate cake and I don't even really like chocolate, but managed to stuff myself with 3 or 4 pieces along with some yummy tea.
Check out their cute menus :)
Why Justin, are you offering to give me the oven to make my cheesecake?
ughh....
Been writing a exam.... no fun... this must be the worst part of teaching: Assessment.
pizza party & game night
On Saturday, we had our first get together at the house. Since not everyone knew each other and we hadn't seen some folks in awhile, most of the night was spent chatting and playing games, of which I do not remember the names. I have to ask Bao one of these days. One of the games had a penalty of eating a packet of hot sauce and can I tell you, hot sauce does not go down that easily. Quite disgusting actually.
Some folks' reactions when they lost and had to swallow a packet:
Andrew
Bao
Johnny
Me
Tino
Poor Patricia. Since she was last, the only packet left was double the size of the rest of ours. Suffice it to say we didn't eat hot sauce for a few days.
Andrew fanning like a geisha it was so hot.
Moved locations, but the weather was still hot.
Finally gave up and moved the game of "Egyptian Rat Screw" into an AC room. Some folks waiting to slap the cards on doubles and sandwiches. The object of the game is to 'AMASS' as many cards as possible. Of course, being nerds that they all are, they decided to make up other rules including addition, consecutives, even multiplication. Dang over-acheivers!
Me, at 12 midnight, my reaction time is pretty much nil, so I sat out to watch them bump heads and strategize the most efficient/distracting slapping moves. As they got tired and their accompanying musical soundtrack got slower, they became erratic, words such as 'crazy teretz girl' was flung about. Bursts of laughter rung throughout the house. Senility set in.
The clam.
The praying mantis.
Gotta get ourselves some poker chips for another game night. Wonder where I could find some in Vietnam?
