Off to Vietnam

Today our Happy Family leaves for 10 days in Vietnam, as we have some time off school for Chinese New Year. We get back on February 1st. Although we have NO idea what to expect, we are excited to have the opportunity to go for so long and I am expecting my first true culture shock. So far we've been pretty sheltered, and have had no real problems with communication. Apparently there is very little English in Vietnam, which will be challenging for sure.

We fly into Ho Chi Minh City tonight, and will spend the next 10 days making our way north, to Hanoi, where we will fly back to Singapore from.

Packing 10 days into our travel backpacks was a challenge, but I think we all did pretty well, considering we packed pretty much the same amount for 4 days in Thailand...so I think we're getting better :)

I finally got my classes sorted out, and we now all have classes Monday-Wednesday, leaving us the rest of the week to travel, which is nice. I fully expect our Financial Risk and Insurance class to be the end of me....it's extremely difficult, and I resent it already.....

Yesterday was 39 degrees with the humidity....and apparently it's only going to get hotter, since we are in the latter part of the "cooler" season.....oi

Last night we went to our Hall 16 Chinese New Year dinner at Raffles Country Club. It was a lot of fun, and definitely an experience, which included a mandarin orange-eating-contest....can't say I've done that before. Since the dress code was "red", we all wore red and white......and were the Cheesy Canadians all dressed the same in our country colours. We learned a lot about the Chinese culture last night and got to do some fun things, like toss some food around for good luck.

I'm finding I have a ridiculously big appetite here lately. Our first week here, I didn't have much of one at all, and now I'm hungry all the time. Example: yesterday I had breakfast (2 bowls of cereal), a snack at 10am (plate of fruit, and tea), and lunch (an ENTIRE footlong sub which I devoured in about 14 minutes), and by 3:45pm I was starving......yeesh. It must be all the stairs I have to climb here everyday to get to and from class making me hungry. I just can't get enough...:)

I don't know if I'll have internet access anywhere in Vietnam like I had in Thailand through internet cafes, so it might be 11 days until my next post. I'm sure I'll have a lot to write about.

Look out Vietnam, Happy Family is on it's way.

xoxo