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Greetings all! Day 21 is just about in the books here. We have made it through another weekend. Tova is really starting to show her personality. Much of its manifestation is through fighting sleep and letting you know that she is angry. I just finished feeding her but prior to that, she was letting me know that I wasn’t getting it ready fast enough. She reminds me a lot of Gavin in her temper. He will act in a similar way when he wants to get things done his way.
We started this morning by meeting Kevin, Alison, & Jodie for the circus. It was quite an enjoyable time. To give you the run-down, I had looked up the price last night and was expecting to pay 15,000VND per person for the Sunday morning kids performance. As we approached the ticket counter, I could see that the website I had found was out of date and it was now 20,000. No big deal. Then a woman comes up to us in front of the ticket booth and hands us each a ticket that shows 20,000 on the face. She grabs a 50,000VND bill from another lady to indicate that this is what we should pay. Kevin gave that much and so did I, we thought, for two tickets each. However, when she got to Kristen, she motioned that she should be paying 50,000 too. We shook our heads and I got close enough to the booth to point to the 20,000 price. The ticket lady, in turn, pointed to the weekday price, which was 50,000. I pointed again at the Sunday morning price and then she pointed at the kids price, which was 20,000, indicating that I was looking at the wrong price. A third time I pointed at the Sunday morning price of 20,000VND so she kept our 50,000 and disgustedly motioned for us to go. Wow! What fun! Then on our way into the arena, a bus chock full of elementary school kids pulled up making noise and smiling and waving to us and the girls. They were very excited. We were about 20 minutes early and walked into the 2,000 seat arena and were about the only people there. We watched as many busloads of kids filled the seats and the show began. The first three-quarters of the 1.5 hour show was acrobats and dancers and clowns. It was pretty good show. A couple performances stood out: one was the group of seven men who worked with two 25 foot vertical poles. They would climb up and do various acrobatic movements from one pole to the other and back. What made us catch our breath was seeing them grip the poles with their legs while face down to the ground at the top. They would release their grip a bit and slide to ground face first. Naturally, they would grab with their legs in time so that they were about a foot from the ground when they stopped. That was a common method for them to dismount. It was pretty cool. The other acts of note were the monkeys and elephants. These were the only two animal acts, for which we are thankful. We are pretty sure that PETA wasn’t in the back checking out the living conditions of these animals. The monkeys looked bored, scared, and were handled by leashes around their necks. They weren’t given treats like the circus animals that we have seen in the past and instead were incented through the fear of punishment, it seemed. They did ride bikes, which was pretty cool. The elephants did their thing but they didn’t look too happy to be doing it.
After the circus, we went to Lenin Park. It was a nice park by a lake to walk around for a bit.
We went back to the hotel where K & T rested after lunch while I hunted for formula. I found some. We then went out for supper and have now crashed for the evening.
We did receive a bit of sad news this morning. Kristen’s grandmother died Saturday in Texas of pneumonia. She was 90. It is disappointing for Kristen because she would really like to go the funeral but obviously cannot. She doesn’t get to see her family much and her grandma even less so I think it would have been a good thing for her to do. We won’t be able to go but some things can’t be helped.
As for more thoughts, we finally had sun this weekend. Today was the third sunny day since we have been here and was the hottest as well. It seems that every time we get back to the hotel these days, we need to change clothes. One of us is wearing a backpack and the other is wearing Tova in a sling. It makes for much sweat! I would also say that we seem to be getting a comfort level about us here. We can find our way around without the guidebook and aren’t intimidated by traffic and people trying to sell us books, videos, motorbike rides, cyclo rides, fruit, hats, candy, flowers, or to stop in their restaurant. We are able to keep moving when people begin to ask us questions about Tova. Many will ask if she is from VN or ask how old she is. We always answer with a smile that she is from here and that she is four months old. Granted, she is not yet 4 but it keeps the lectures to a minimum! That’s all for now.
Have a great Palm Sunday, one of my favorite Sundays of the year. Also, happy April Fools’ Day.
Jason |
