November- Wedding in Hanoi

Our friend, Ha, invited us to attend his wedding. We got to be a part of the pre-banquet events, where a convoy begins at the groom's house, goes to the house of the bride where tea and some snacks are shared and the fathers talk about the union of the 2 families before the bride-groom go to pray at the family altar.

At a pre-determined time, the couple leaves the bride's home to go to the groom's home to do it all over again before the convoy goes to the banquet-a big event where lots of food and drink flow and everyone is toasting each other and the new couple. What a beautiful event!
The convoy walking down the alleyway to the bride's house.
Photos at the house of the bride.
Praying at the family altar in the bride's home.
Leaving the bride's house.
Arriving at the house of the groom's family.
Praying at the family altar of the groom.
Groom's brother, sister-in-law, and nephew.
Photos at the groom's house.
More family photos: bride with nieces and nephew.
The wedding banquet.

Fall Break Part 2-MuiNe

Once we returned to Saigon, we booked a train to MuiNe, where we stayed and relaxed for a few days. Such a great place!
Our room at the Full Moon..our old favorite hotel was sold and is now La Plage.
Morning coffee from the balcony. Ahh. I love MuiNe.
Playing with some shells.
Beach dogs. They actually live at the hotel. Mom is in the back with 2 of her pups. The brown one was shorter, stouter, and friendlier but the white one was my favorite.

Singapore zoo

Jonathan and the Proboscis monkey tree.
He's checkin' us out.
Us at the zoo. I like the light in this photo.
Here we are with the orangutans.
Fruit bats are awesome! AKA flying fox. Within this enclosure the bats, birds, lemurs and sloth were all cruising around-you could pet them, and people tried..obviously not a good idea but how could you NOT want to pet him!

Fall Break Part 1- Singapore

Little India Market.
This was great! He has a tray with little holes in it in a design. The tray is full of flour. He is tapping the tray on the floor to make the cool designs you see around him.
Ganesha.
City scene. Veg and non-veg food. Cool.

In mid-October I attended a conference in Singapore. Jonathan came and met me for a couple of days. We visited Little India and the amazing Singapore Zoo and Night Safari! Wow!

Vietnam International Triathlon

Lanterns for sale in HoiAn.
I love markets!

Lantern shops at night after the rain.

Upon our return from DaLat, J was getting ready for a trip to Kyoto for a primate conference while I was preparing for my triathlon. A few teachers had been training and traveled to HoiAn for the event. One teacher had an apendicidis and could not compete, and I managed to catch Jonathan's fun fever-thing and was not functioning at 100% so I participated in most of the tri..but still felt pretty tired. Here are some photos of HoiAn.

September- a national holiday in DaLat

Our first holiday, early September, was spent in DaLat. Jonathan had been here with Fulbright and really enjoyed the hotel: big-people-sized bathtubs and terry robes..OH WOW! So we took a bus- I from Saigon, picking Jonathan up at Tan Phu along the way. I had purchased two tickets for the whole trip and was adamant about my seat being saved for Jonathan, who was working in the forest and then taking a motorbike out to the junction to meet me. If I haven't mentioned it already, I must say that some of my favorite folks here are the motorbike drivers. They take on any adventure with a willing and convincing "OK!" J's driver waited with him, looking out for the BIG ORANGE BUS coming from Saigon, flagging it down for J when we arrived.
On our ride in Jonathan began to get the sweats, which continued all weekend long- he was laid up in the hotel with a fever that wiped all his energy.
The ubiquitous market shot. The Market in DaLat is super fun!
At school, we were getting ready to do an activity with popcorn and our 5 senses. The only kind of popcorn I'd ever seen in HCMC is microwave popcorn-not very effective for the activity. So I decided to go searching for some at the market while visiting DaLat. The woman in the brown with the conical hat, she was my "guide" leading me to a shop that sold popcorn! Mission accomplished!
Jonathan's going to hate me for this one, but here we are on our only outing-going for pizza. NOT feeling well here, but it was the best he'd felt since we arrived.
Down the road from our hotel, which was out and away from the downtown area, I found a wee market and this wonderful woman who was making up some banh xeo-a tasty crepe-like thing filled with pork, shrimp and bean sprouts. We usually get them with no meat and they are super-delicious. I got take-away from her a couple of times! YUM!!

FINALLY! AN UPDATE!

Hi Everyone! Sorry I have been so very lazy and busy (but mostly lazy) and haven't posted anything since May! Yikes! We are both relaxing right now- it is Tet and the city is pretty quiet..almost disturbingly so (but you won't hear me complain about it!) We both have been a bit tired as we battle chest colds-oh how I love to cough uncontrollably!
I'll post some photos, hopefully in the order that they occurred, mostly of our travels. School and research are going well, but we are looking forward to returning this summer!