Walk like summer, talk like rain

Lots of fun, crazy, exciting, and sad things to come starting this weekend through the end of October. Here's a photo from last weekend - gearing up for it all.

This is after being caught in an epic rainstorm, chauffeuring Maren and myself on my bike, down to the backpacker area for a little R&R after a long week, sitting in a cafe DRENCHED. Later met up with some other friends for a hop around town - we walked everywhere (it wasn't raining anymore, but I felt damp for the rest of the evening, ugh) and I'm incredibly proud of us. (Sidenotes: A) Check out the yellow nails! B) We are not pinching Dan's ear, Kat is leading me elsewhere. C) Thanks, Glenn, for finding this gem!)

Hope your smiles are as big as that one. Love!

Children

Me: I hate children. (sneeze) They touch things and then give me their germs.

Dan: No you don't.

Me: Fine, I like them like I like dogs, in theory.

My youngest student (I was going to say child, but I wouldn't want any of you to think I'd lost my mind and ventured into parenthood) was coughing and sneezing on me last week; "Andrew, cover your mouth!" never worked very long. So now my eyes are itchy, my nose stuffy, and my throat scratchy. Ugh, (germy) children. Maybe I'll take tomorrow off.

On a much happier, less congested note, Happy, happy 30th birthday to my dearest brother!

I saw one of my facebook friends did 27 random acts of kindness for her 27th birthday - something to consider for my 28th.

Hoi An and learning French

I'm working on this (never-ending) project and happened across a museum site that is only in French - which is weird because their other languages are Luxembourgish and German, but not the point. So, I needed to work out the address, contacts, opening hours, etc and was able to figure it all out without consulting a translator. I did have to ask what a word that turned out to mean "weekly" was, but in the big picture, my French is really coming along. Now, if only I made more time to study and practice.

In other news, I just returned from a three-day weekend in Hoi An. It is easily the most beautiful beach and town I've been to in Vietnam yet. We stayed in a four-star hotel with olympic-sized outdoor pool, just 20 meters from our room and another 20 meters from the beach, a pool bar on one side and a spa on the other. We rented a motorbike to drive in and out of town for the length of our stay and I got three dresses, 2 shorts, and a skirt made. I also got a bathing suit made, but it got left behind because it wasn't the right size and we ran out of time to wait for it to be fixed. Surely I will return. I've caught the tailor-made bug and the only cure is moving somewhere in which tailor-made clothes are unrealistically too expensive.

I took a few photos, but not many. And in the last three hours of the trip I broke my camera: a plastic bottle of Revive (energy drink) was just below the bank on the sand, moments away from being swept away by the tide. I noticed it while I was taking photos and decided to pick it up; walking over, I fell down the bank, dropping my camera in to the sand, so now the lens cover won't open all the way. Disappointment. I got it fixed once before in Nha Trang, so maybe I can again, but what ever is broken this time is different from what was broken before. Maybe if I bang it against enough things, the sand will fall out and all will be saved - surely I know that will only break something else. The good news: I rescued the plastic bottle.

"That's what you get for trying to save the environment." :P