Our Stay in Saigon

We spent three weeks in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) while Christian was on assignment covering for a colleague on maternity leave. We stayed at the Indochine service apartments which was right downtown and the perfect location! Here is a pic from the rooftop where we ate dinner overlooking the city.

Saigon was so different from Hanoi and it's a little hard to put my finger on exactly what was different. Here is one realization I had: In Beijing you have to be careful walking on the sidewalk because you don't know which way to dodge when you hear someone winding up to spit a logie (sp?). In Hanoi I usually walk in the street because the sidewalks are full of parked motorbikes which leaves little or no room for people. In Saigon, you have to be very careful walking on the sidewalk because, although the streets are broader to accommodate more traffic, it apparently isn't broad enough and people feel the need to drive their motorbikes on the sidewalk. Watch out pedestrians wherever you are!

These were some highlights... swimming, playing at the nice new playground 5 min walk away, playing tennis at the presidential palace tennis courts (across the street from our apartment), exploring Ben Thanh market Jennie's favorite shopping place (see pics below), celebrating Emma's REAL birthday, going out to eat at our favorite restaurant, etc.

Emma buying a pair of slippers - medicinal herb shop

Our housekeeper came to Saigon with us. Her parents live there and she hadn't seen them for over a year. Here is a pic of her family (she is in the middle). It was a pleasure to meet her mother and father and be in their home. Brother on left, 2 nieces and sister-in-law in bright pink shirt. She has a wonderful family.

Saigon has a nice zoo. I didn't think it was as depressing as the one here in Hanoi. There were ladies selling carrot sticks, bananas, sugar cane, and other things you could feed to the animals. The kids loved the zoo and we followed a monkey who was being led by a zookeeper around the zoo. Below is a pic of our housekeeper holding the monkey's hand while he sat down for a rest. She said it really had a tight grip!

Emma gets lot of mileage out of her birthday. She celebrated her birthday in California with family, Hanoi with friends (and at school), and she had her real birthday in Saigon. Xander is having birthday envy and keeps saying with bright eyes and a huge smile "Xander birthday today?" I keep telling him that he can have another birthday next year after Christmas and he gets excited like it's happening tomorrow. Cute boy!

Emma got to plan her special day with daddy's help. We first went to the presidential palace which was where the North Vietnamese (Communist) tanks rolled through the front gates and ended the war.

It was interesting to see that they left the palace as it was when it was taken over. There were parts that were decorated all 60's which was fun to see and there was even a movie theater too. Xander's most memorable part of the tour was the camouflaged helicopter on the rooftop that we could see from our apartment across the street.

Down in the basement of the palace were narrow tunnels which led to different situation rooms, map rooms, communication rooms, etc. It was neat to see where the planning took place. There were muliple telephones in every room of the palace, all waiting for that urgent call. Emma's deciding on which one to answer.

In the evening for Emma's birthday we went to see the water puppets. It was a great performance with live music and singing. Emma thought it was pretty cool to go see the puppets for her birthday since we saw the water puppets for my birthday last year when we were in Hue (just north of Da Nang).

On the right you can see the puppet artists who came out to take a bow after the performance. It's pretty amazing to see how they work.

At the end of the day we celebrated with frozen yogurt. It was called Yo Fruz and was so good!

While in Saigon, we also visited a couple Chinese temples. Here are a couple pics. This temple is famous for protecting the seas, which is important when you live next to the ocean.

We're not dead, yet!

Now you know why we don't do Facebook! Sorry for not posting sooner. Here's a brief recap... In May we came back to Hanoi from the States with our ittie bittie Anneliese. Emma took her to school for show and tell. All the kids wanted to hold her, but we settled for touching her feet. Emma was so careful and so responsible answering all the questions during sharing time.

Emma made cupcakes to take to her class for an early birthday celebration. Notice the gap her smile where her 1st tooth fell out!

Emma graduated from Kindergarten and is SOOO excited to go to Grade One. Below is a pic of Emma's end-of-year Performing Arts Concert. Emma did a splendid job being a ladybug in her class performance. At the end all the kindergartners sang a song that made the parents cry. It was a song about children being the hope of the future. It was sweet.

Now for a pic from Emma's birthday party with friends in Hanoi before everyone went to their home countries for the summer. We had a cooking party where the girls decorated their own party hats and each got to wear an apron and take it home. They rolled out their own pizza dough, decorated their pizzas and then got to decorate cupcakes to take home. We played a few games in the middle - Emma's favorite musical chairs and bingo. It was a lot of fun and I think the girls enjoyed themselves.

I realize this has been a very Emma-cetric blog posting, so I'd better put something in about Alexander. This is a movie of him whistling. I love his personality and his whistle!

The Tooth Fairy

Emma has been wiggling her first "looth tooth" for a few weeks now. She proudly shows it to everyone and has been looking forward to this for years...literally. So, today she came bounding home from school and announced "mom, look it came out!" Here are a few statements from our cute girl about this remarkable occasion:

Mom: how did it come out? "It wasn't our housekeeper, or the nanny who is having a playdate with Xander and his friend at our house right now, but it was another lady in the lobby - she just pulled it out! and then said to drink some cold water to stop the bleeding" I later found out that it was someone from housekeeping who works in our apartment building - NICE!

"Mom, my friend Zoe got stickers from the tooth fairy, that's how I know that the tooth fairy is real."

"I'm going to polish my tooth with my toothbrush and toothpaste to make it all shiny for the tooth fairy."

"Did you know that tooth faries make their houses and castles out of the teeth they collect? They use the real shiny ones for special decoration."

"I'm going to write her a note and tell her that I would like a chocolate bar." Later, she said that the tooth fairy could give her anything and it didn't matter. It didn't need to be a chocolate bar.

"Mom, how will the tooth fairy know that I lost my tooth?" Mom: Oh, don't worry, she'll know. "Oh right. I bet she has one of those monitors and she can see when kids lose their teeth."

"Mom, how will she get into our house?" Mom: Probably just like Santa Clause. "I bet that I have a very small hole in my window and she can make herself really small and get in - that's probably how the bugs and mosquitoes get in anyway."

"I move around a lot when I sleep. What if I lose my tooth?" Mom: Don't worry you can just keep it in the baggie. "Should I leave it open so that she can get in there?" Mom: I think you can close it. She'll know what to do. "Oh, that's right, silly me, she has a magic wand."

Right now I'm wishing I would have prepared a little more for this day. When we were growing up, my mom had a "tooth fairy doll" with a special pocket for a tooth. The doll was so beautiful, I was sure that the real tooth fairy looked just like her. We would get to sleep with this doll whenever we lost a tooth. And in the morning, in place of the lost tooth would be a shiny new quarter. It's a dreamy, magical memory for me. I almost feel like I need to end this entry with: And they all lived happily ever after.

Home Again in Hanoi

We arrived home late last night exhausted, but happy to be home again. Here are some random thoughts I've had in the past couple days of travel as we've ended our stay in the good 'ol USA.

- I absolutely loved connecting with family and friends. My mind is swimming with good memories, warm feelings, deep appreciation, life-changing insights, fun times, and a heart full of love.
- The kids were amazingly good on the flights home and having Christian with us was such a blessing and a necessity. There were a few hiccups in our travels (like missing our overseas connection in SFO due to fog and having our journey delayed 24 hours, Xander's major diaper blowout-yikes!, and delicately balancing 12 pieces of luggage on 2 "smarte cartes") and I couldn't help but imagine the scene if I were doing it alone - me on the floor in a heap of tears and 3 crying kids is the image that repeatedly comes to mind : )
- Xander had the window seat and Christian had the aisle - in other words, he was "boxed in" and it worked out great. It cracked me up to see him with his airplane socks on (just like daddy) and walk around with his eye mask on (trying to copy mommy). He even took a nice nap and was cheerful on the trans-pacific flight, and he slept the entire 4 1/2 hour flight from Seoul to Hanoi. I was pleased that we didn't have to use the Dramamine I brought along.
- Emma sat behind Anneliese and me. I caught little bits of her conversation with the businessmen next to her, which cracked me up. She kindly bestowed Little Einstein stickers to everyone and at one point, I heard her exclaim, "this is my favorite show!" - on the Disney Channel of course. She was so grown up and proud to be "on her own" behind mom. Two fav moments are catching her brushing her teeth in her chair after dinner (who can resist playing with all the items in the travel pouch they give you?!?) And it was cute to see the flight attendants wait on her and give her special straws to go in her champagne glass full of water. I was a tad bit jealous, I just got a regular cup : )
- I got 2 solid hours of sleep last night from 1-3:00 a.m. and the rest was spent holding, feeding, jigging, walking out to the living room and back to the bedroom to test all the couches and chairs for comfort (I miss the nice rocking chairs at grandma's house and at mom's), and falling asleep with my head at every possible angle. I think Anneliese senses the change of environment and post stress of traveling for 3 days.
- I've been trying to think of what I am going to say to my housekeeper when she comes?!? I've been thinking about it for a couple days and all that comes to mind is a mixture of Chinese and Czech - help! She called this morning to see if we were home (we had no way to tell her our return was delayed) and I managed to communicate that we returned to Hanoi...obviously : )
- This morning both kids woke up at their usual time and Emma was excited to go to school, so we sent her for possibly a half day - we'll see how long she lasts. It will be a big surprise because I didn't have a chance to give her teacher a head's up. Thankfully Huong our housekeeper had a fridge full of chopped fresh fruit, spring rolls and sticky rice with chicken, and that was breakfast for all and lunch for Emma and Christian as they headed out to catch their busses.
- Xander, Anneliese and I took Emma down to the bus this morning and it was surreal and nostalgic to see Hanoi again through "first time" eyes. I couldn't help but smile as we waited for the bus and was reminded of the horn honking, motorbikes, ladies with bicycles loaded up with things for sale, construction projects in the works, people coming and going with their daily groceries just purchased fresh from the market ...aaaaaaah : ) I love it.
- I think I will be unpacking again for the next month...our airfreight shipment is waiting for me downstairs in 4 big boxes (the size of a dresser), our sea shipment comes next week sometime and I have 12 pieces of luggage with all sorts of things to pack. I know already that our housekeeper will smile, shake her head and say with a laugh "too many things!" It's amazing what you can do without and what you think you need to have.
- I need to sign off, Anneliese is fussing and Xander is too quiet...

Sen. McCain in Hanoi

The day after I got back to Hanoi, Sen. McCain arrived here as well. He came with Sen. Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) and Sen. Klobuchar (Minnesota). I was lucky enough to attend his meetings with the Prime Minister, Chairman of the National Assembly and his speech to a group of students. In between his official meetings, we made a quick trip to Truc Bach lake in the center of town. Sen. McCain landed in the lake after his plane was shot down during the Vietnamese War. Given that Sen. McCain's father was the head of the military's Pacific Command at the time, the Vietnamese quickly put up a monument at the site to those who shot down "Tchan Sney Mcaan" (a Vietnamized spelling of John Sidney McCain). Above is a picture of the Senator standing in front of the statue which remains today. McCain joked with his fellow senators that it didn't hurt his feelings that they called him an "air pirate" on the monument, but that it did bother him that they said he was in the Air Force and not the Navy.

It was amazing how Sen. McCain was treated like a rockstar here. At his speech to students, he was greeted by screaming teens snapping pictures furiously while trying to press in and shake his hand. It was a sight to behold. His staff even joked that the students seemed to have him confused with the Beatles. The next day, the delegation made a visit to the Hoa Lao prison, better known as the "Hanoi Hilton" where Sen. McCain spent many years. It is amazing to think that how far we have come in the past 30 years and the wounds that have healed. Regardless of what you think of his politics, Sen. McCain is to be commended for the crucial roll he has played in our reconciliation with Vietnam even though he suffered so much during the war. Less than 15 years ago we didn't even have an Embassy here and now 80% of the country loves America. My how far we have come! I guess it helps that more than 2/3 of the country was born after the war.


At church on Sunday, our Branch President informed me that he saw me on the national nightly news which covered the delegation's meetings with Prime Minister and Chairman of the National Assembly. Later while visiting the Communist Party of Vietnam's website (yes, I do that frequently for work) I came across the video news coverage of the meetings. While watching the video, I was surprised to see that the cameramen zoomed in on me several times (I guess that is because I was intently taking notes of what was being said). I have tried to download the footage to post it on our blog but I guess I am technologically inept because I haven't been able to do so. Here is the link to the Communist Party's website where the video was posted: Lãnh đạo Đảng, Nhà nước tiếp đoàn Thượng nghị sĩ Hoa Kỳ is the one with Sen. McCain (literally translated as Party and National Leaders Welcome a Delegation of United States Senators). I guess with that I have used up a couple more seconds of my 5 minutes of fame.

Christian in Hanoi & Jennie and the Kids in California

We enjoyed a great month together in Utah visiting with family and friends. Christian came back to Hanoi on April 5 only to be greeted by 1,200 unread work e-mails. I guess taking a month off of work will do that to you.

Jennie and the kiddos left Utah on Friday to visit her Mom and Briant in Southern California for two weeks before Christian heads back to the States for a couple of days to help bring the whole family home. Expecting Jennie to survive a 30+ hour flight alone with three kids, as cute as they may be, was just too much to ask. We look forward to being back in Hanoi all together as a family on May 5.

Anneliese Update

We've had an exciting past couple of weeks here in Utah. After spending 10 days in the Hospital, little Anneliese came home with us to Grandma Bitter's house. Jennie's Mom was a real lifesaver during the time before Christian could get here. She flew out the same day as the birth from California and did a great job helping out with Emma and Xander. We couldn't have done it without her. Thank you Mom! Christian took over in taking care of our older two kids upon arrival and has loved having quality one-on-one time with both kiddos. Jennie has been amazing dealing with Anneliese and the sleepless nights that accompany a newborn.

Not long after we brought Anneliese home from the hospital, Christian's parents and younger sister Denisha with her two daughters arrived in Utah to join in the celebration of Anneliese's birth. Denisha is a professional photographer and took the above photos and arranged them for us after returning home to her family in Kentucky. Emma and Xander have loved having quality time with their grandparents and great-grandparents. We are also looking forward to the upcoming visit of Jennie's Dad & Elaine at the end of this month.

While Christian's family was in town, Briant also drove up from California to be here for Anneliese's blessing. We are supremely grateful for the sacrifice of so many family members to be here to share in our special time. It was a wonderful celebration to have so many close family members on both sides of our family here for that special occasion. We are so blessed to be staying with Grandma & Grandpa Bitter who have been so accomodating and loving and have put up with our quirks and many visitors. Huge thank you's are also in order for Auntie who has been so generous in babysitting and everything else, Desiree & Chuck for giving the tired parents a rare night out together and Natalie for taking Jennie to the hospital at 4:00 am for the birth.

Anneliese continues to grow and is such a cute little princess. She is still on oxygen - largely the result of being a premy in high elevation Utah. We hope that by the end of this month she won't need her oxygen "top-off" any longer. Emma & Xander are enjoying helping Mom and getting to know little "Ah-Lisa" as Xander calls her. Time continues to fly by. In less than two weeks Christian will be getting back on an airplane headed home to Hanoi - with the rest of the family to follow a month later.