Thuong

I am wondering what you are thinking about the title of this blog post. Is it the name of a city? Is it a misspelled word? Is it a typo? Is it the sound of a sneeze? It is none of the above my friends. It is someone's name. This name is pronounced like the English word "tongue", except you put more emphasis in the word, which I cannot show you by writing in a blog post. So, that will have to do.

Anyway... this name belongs to a girl we met, along with her friend, Phi, pronounced like the English word "fee". We met these girls as we were walking to dinner. They invited us to come into their restaurant, but we never did because we always had something else in mind to eat that night. We would just stop and talk to them, and one night we finally did eat there. One night when we stopped to say hello, Thuong invited us to her house to eat. We set a date to come and that day was yesterday. We started off at 9:00 AM. She met us at the restaurant and we rode to her house on motor bikes. We came to find out later she had left her house that morning at 7:30 just to come pick us up at the restaurant, and then went all the way back! So, Thuong took us to Phi's house and we ate fruit there and met her family. All of the neighborhood kids were running around trying to get a better look at the foreigners! This is a picture of the neighbors house, which looked the same as Phi's house.



After we ate, Phi took us to a market and then we met some of her neighbors. She showed us her family's farm and it was all very beautiful! By the time 12:00 rolled around, we were told by Thuong that now we are going to go visit her family. So we set off to meet Thuong's family. We met her brothers and her parents, and ate lunch with them. Here is a picture of the scenery around her house.




We ate what is considered a really nice Vietnamese meal that her parent's cooked for us. We ate vegetables and meat and fat wrapped in rice paper. It was really good, and spicy! We also learned that Vietnamese people eat from the floor. We all sat down and had our bowls in front of us on the floor and ate merrily! It was very good and an interesting experience. I, of course made a mess of my area and her parents thought it was hilarious because I was making fun of myself the whole time for not doing it the right way. It was a hoot! At one point some food flew out of my mouth and onto the floor, it was pretty funny!

Anyway, after lunch, we all helped clean up (which didn't take much because we just swept and mopped and it was done!) I had to use the bathroom, so I asked to use the W.C. Thuong had asked a friend of hers to come over for lunch, so when I asked about the W.C., Thuong looked at her friend and kind of looked embarrassed. Stan said quickly, "It's just a hole out back. You'll have to get your shoes." Thuong's English isn't the best, so speaking fast makes it difficult for her to understand. That's why he spoke quickly, so I could understand what was about to happen, and it wouldn't embarrass her. I told her I could find it and went outside. I went out back, where all the dragon fruit plants were and found her mother. I made the "I have to pee" face and stance. Mama motioned for me to go pee back where there is more coverage and I wouldn't be seen. So, I just found an area where no one might see me, and used the facilities right there in broad daylight. Oh yeah, no toilet paper... I had to rummage around and find a leaf. I was pretty proud of myself! So, after I was finished I was thinking, "I didn't even see a whole... there must be some sort of miscommunication going on." Obviously. I don't speak Vietnamese and Thuong's mother doesn't speak English. So... anyway, after lunch we "took a break" before the next thing Thuong had planned for us to do. Stan tried to fight off the sleep (really, we all did after that big meal) and Thuong's father brought this out for Stan.


He was gone! Got a quick power nap in!

So, Thuong took us around to meet the rest of her family after we rested. All of her family lives on the same street. Stan was telling her it feels like home because in the country in America, it's the same thing. Her family was oh so nice and was constantly offering us things to eat. The food was sooooo good! But our stomaches just couldn't take anymore! So we kindly declined some of the food, and Thuong helped us by explaining to them we had eaten all day! After visiting with her family, she told us we should make our way back to our hotel because after night fall, we might not be able to remember our way back. haha, so she decided for us. That's Asia!

I had to go to the bathroom again, (I wish girls had the bigger bladders, not boys!) so I psyched myself up for the bathroom situation again, and made my way out back. Thuong followed me to show me the way this time. She pointed to a small out house in the opposite direction I had used the bathroom before. I still don't know why Mama pointed me in that direction before. I had clearly used my body language in the right way. :) Anyway, the outhouse was the hole Stan spoke of. It still had no paper, so I had to go searching for leaves again. I am woman, hear me roar! After that, we got on the bikes and got back to the hotel safely.

All in all, it was a fun trip! We were tired by the end of the day and I went to sleep pretty early! I'm glad we've made these friends. They are so sweet and we are grateful to have met them! There's so much I could write about, but it would be a super long blog post and this one is long as it is! So I tried to shrink it down to a short story for ya! Well that's all I've got! Thanks for reading! I love you all!

Best Friends

Stan likes to wrap himself up in his sleeping bag from time to time when he's cold. And I think it's cute, so I thought I'd share it with you!



Many people choose times like Valentines Day and anniversaries to have a tribute blog for their significant other. But I was just thinking about this today... My husband really is my best friend. I was thinking of it because of something that happened this past Sunday. We've joyfully discovered that we can get some American TV shows here in Vietnam! Now, I'm not one to watch TV when at the beach, but at night when there are only mosquitos waiting to eat me...I'll stay inside and watch TV. So there are only a few, but they're good ones like the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, National Geographic, TLC, and a couple more. Anyway, so we were walking back from dinner and I said, "It's Sunday night! That means something new has to be coming on the discovery channel!" Stan turned to Kevin and said, "How did I get a wife who loves the Discovery Channel?!"

Now, I like "girly" things, but I probably like more "boy" things than "girl" things. I like boy TV shows, movies and even conversation. I laugh at gross things boys do. I just think it's funny when other girls might roll their eyes. But the thing is, I don't think of it that way at all. It's not girl or boy to me, I'm just me, and I like what I like. So, this got me thinking, me and Stan are really close. Really best friends. I mean, I thought of him and cherished him as my best friend when we were dating, and when we got married.

We dated for 3 years before we got married, so we've been together for over 6 years. But over the past 3 1/2 years of marriage, I've realized he's even more of a best friend to me now than before! This past year and a half has really pushed us to help each other to grow, and in turn grow closer to each other. At the end of this school year, Stan and I will have spent half of our marriage in China! It's funny to think about it that way. We always say, "If you want to strengthen your marriage, move to China." Obviously there are other ways, and moving to a foreign country is not a must have...but it's been a blessing to both of us. Anyway (I try not to ramble in blog posts, but sometimes it's so easy!) I feel like 3 1/2 years of marriage will take it's own growth patterns where ever you are, but I also feel like we have something a lot of marriages don't. We've had the opportunity to be challenged early in our marriage and it's helped us to grow in ways we might not have gotten to until later! There has been lots of rubbing off on one another, but most of the time he's the one rubbing off on me, showing me how to be a better person. Because he truly is!

The best part about this is, this is only 3 1/2 years! I'm excited to see what God has in store for us in the future! I'm so thankful for the opportunities God has given us! Thanks for reading, I love you all!

Thank you Dr. Dennis

As most of you know, we have made it to the beach in Vietnam. We've been here a little over a week. Everything is cheap here. the foreign food isn't as cheap as other things, but it is still cheap in comparison to what I would pay for the same food in America. Most things like massages, nail care and hair care are super cheap! So, a couple days ago it was a rainy day... and a rainy day on the beach is no fun. So, we (me, Stan and Kevin) we just sitting around reading. It was raining off and on, so we went and sat out in the shade. I decided to go get a pedicure because, well...I wanted one, AND it's not like I could soak up any sun rays, AND it's cheap, AND I had the slightest start of an ingrown toenail (gross, I know). So I knew they could take care of it for me! I'm here to tell you, they're painful if you've never had one! You'd do the same thing if you only had to pay 4 dollars to get it taken care of and you get pretty toenails too! Ok, ok, I digress...

So, I went to get a pedicure. I didn't know where I was going to go, so I just wandered down the road but stayed close to our Bungalows. I found a little shop that did massages, nails, and hair (but most of them do). This one was just as cheap as the others so I decided to go on in. When I went in, there was the cutest little puppy dog. So I got to play with him while they finished my toenails! (Elise, don't take offense to this, but I was glad I got to play with the little puppy because I can't play with my nephew. lol... not that I'm comparing him to my nephew, I was just happy I got to play with something that is cute and cuddly if I can't play with my nephew! lol) Anyway, just look how cute he is!








He was getting restless on my lap... time to get down!


Cuddling up against the feet pan.


This is what he looked like when I left! He was all tuckered out!



While I was sitting there, puppy in lap, a man walked out from the back of the store and thanked the girl for his massage. He was talking to the girls in the shop like he knew them. I soon found out he lives here in Muine, Vietnam! And has for 3 years! We got to talking and found out his name is Dennis and he is from California. He came to Muine for the kite surfing! (I'll do another blog on that later!) After a while, the girl who gave him a massage walked out by the front steps and sat down beside him. I saw something on her leg, but I couldn't tell what it was. I heard Dennis say to her that she needed to clean it out. So, I thought 'I've been talking to him long enough... I can be a little nosey'. "What's wrong?" I said. He said, "She's hurt her leg in a motor bike accident and I'm trying to tell her to clean it out. What's that stuff I'm trying to think of that bubbles up?" Thankfully, my parents used that all the time when we were little so I knew exactly what he was talking about! "Hydrogen Peroxide," I replied. "Yes, that's it!" he said. The girl had packed crushed mustard seed into her wounds without cleaning them first and infection had set in. (First of all, I've never heard of packing mustard seed in anything to make it better, but this IS Asia.) So, as he was telling her she needed to clean it out, the girl was telling him that was not right. I could see on her face she thought it was bad for her. So I pitched in, "It won't hurt, it just looks weird. but I promise, it won't hurt." Dennis, "Yeah, it doesn't hurt at all." Nothing from the girl. She's just examining her infected wounds. "You need to trust me. I'm a doctor. I have some at my house. Let me go get it and I'll be right back." So he's a doctor? Oh ok, cool! So, he comes back and gives it to the girl, but she is still so reluctant about it. I can see the frustration in his face, but he never once acted frustrated, or angry toward her. He just wanted to help her. Both people thought they were right, but I could tell it was a friendship. As I was leaving, he said, "You tell her she needs to use this and take care of herself." I laughed and said, "It will help, I promise." I said goodbye and thought to myself, I have gotten so irritated at the Asian culture for their frame of mind about medicine. They way they think nothing is right but their way. He might have had the same feelings, but he never once let them show to her. So, thank you Dr. Dennis for showing me a little patience, even if you didn't realize it. Thanks for reading! I love you all!

Buddha

We are here in Muine, Vietnam. Being away from home and on vacation, most people will go out to eat for dinner because, well, you can't cook when you are away from home. Now, sometimes people will go to the grocery store and buy things to make sandwiches. This is not the case here. We've tried to find a place to get sandwich stuff, and we haven't been able to find it! So we just try to eat cheap! Tonight, however, we ate at a nice restaurant because we knew the girls there from last year! they asked us to come eat there tonight, so we did. Well, they hit it off really well with Stan last year and they have kept in touch with each other. One of the girls name is Jane.

Well, we ordered our food and ate a good meal. We were just hanging out at the table and decided to get the check. Stan got up to go ask Jane for the check. As he was waiting for her to draw up the check, they were chatting and Stan was making her laugh, and they looked like they were having fun! Stan came back to the table and me and Kevin got up to leave. As we were leaving the restaurant Stan said, "They told me I needed to lose weight." Me and Kev: "What?!" Stan: "Yeah, they said 'You look like-a da Buddha. I think maybe you don't exercise.'" Me and Kev: "Wow."

You see, the way things work in the Asian culture is like this: "Don't marry him. He's too fat. He's too ugly, and he doesn't make any money." A lot of times you will hear this come from the mother of a poor girl, just wanting to marry for love. It is not rude to tell someone you think they are fat. You are helping them become more healthy, and you are doing them a service. It isn't thought as cruel or rude. Friends will say this to each other. So when Stan told us this, we were surprised, but we've heard it many times about other people. It's very common in China to hear this, but we were surprised because we'd never heard it from a Vietnamese person before. Especially in this town (a beach town) everyone and everything has a laid back feel to it. No one is rushing, and everyone is soaking up some sun rays, havin a good time. This is very different from China as a whole (as well as America) but it doesn't matter that they are laid back, they are still Asian. And they will still tell you what they think about the shape of your body. Stan said it didn't bother him, but I was offended enough for the both of us! :) So I decided I would do a blog about this and explain this is how Chinese people are too. I told Stan to model how the Asian culture sees him...




And how his wife sees him...



I think the last one matters the most, don't you? Oh yeah and he gave me permission to write this blog. haha! Well, that's all for today! Thanks for reading and I love you all!

First stop: Nanning

The biggest holiday in China is the Chinese New Year, and after that comes the Spring Festival. It's all kinda lumped together. But from now until the middle of February all of the students go home. As I have said before, we live in a district which was established especially for Universities. There are 14 or 15 Universities in our area and that's all there is! Universities and shops which are open mainly for the students and teachers. This is how they keep their businesses afloat. So... when the students go home, so do the shop keepers. Everything closes down. We left today because of this. I went across the street last night to get some last minute items before leaving today, and the shop keeper told me that they would be closing in 4 days. I asked when they would be open again, and she said February 15th. There is a major supermarket which will stay open, but that's about it. When the students go home, so do the shopkeepers! It is literally a ghost town! Some schools ask their foreign teachers to leave because the school closes, and so does the building the foreign teachers live in. Some of our friends teach at a near by school. Their supervisors asked them to leave the Xiasha area because of this, and if they didn't want to because of money, the school would pay for them to stay in a hotel downtown. That doesn't happen in every school, but there are some that do that!

Anyway...

We flew out today and we have arrived in Nanning! This is a southern city which is close to Vietnam. We will bus down to Vietnam on Tuesday. It's a bit colder here than it was last year at the same time, but we're all content! Me, Stan, and Kevin are making our way down to Vietnam again. We got to do this trip last year and are excited to get to do it again. Something different about this years trip, though is that when we were saying good bye to our Chinese friends, we were really sad and didn't want to go. We didn't really have that feeling last year. We hadn't formed really strong friendships yet. We will be happy to return back to Xiasha and hang out with our friends! Pray for our safe travels! Luckily for Kevin, the flying portion of our trip is over, until we go back to Xiasha. He doesn't like flying very much, so now that that's over we can all have a blast! He's done a blog about his fear of flying, so I don't feel bad for saying it. haha!!

Well, that's all I have! I just wanted to give you all a little update of our plans! Thanks for reading! I love you all!

AirAsia=Absolutely Ridiculous!

Let me just tell you what has been happening the past couple of days. While Danny and Layna were here we tried to buy some tickets to Malaysia. We (Kevin, Stan and I) want to leave this Friday, January 7th. We thought we were cutting it close by buying the tickets at that time, but that hasn't stopped us from getting to our destination before. So we were just gonna buy them then. When we are traveling in China, we usually use elong.com or ctrip.com, but those are only for inside China. For traveling outside of China, AirAsia has the cheapest rates we've ever found! Well, I will have you know it has been the bane of my existence everyday for the past 3 or 4 days. It has consumed my thoughts and I've been able to concentrate on nothing else. We just want to get to Malaysia and hang out with Kimberly Washer and her husband, Gary. Don't know them? Find her blog here! She's a fellow blogger and Freedie friend! Anyway, we were trying to order the tickets and it just wasn't working. I'll explain:

First I tried ordering the tickets online. I got past the part where you enter in your passport info and to the part where you enter in your address and payment info. I was inputting Stan's parents home address, because that address matches the address on our payment info. (billing address) and most of the time it needs to match. (If you've stopped reading by this point, that's fine by me...I just wanna write this out!) :) Ok, so I clicked on the tab that says "Select State". I clicked on it and instead of listing the 50 States of America from which I could choose, it opened a box that only said, "N/A" I tried to just type in the state. It wouldn't let me. Ok, I thought, I'll just continue without choosing a state. When I did that, it said, "An error has occurred blah blah blah blah....." and pointed to the part of the page where I had not clicked a State.... confusion sets in. So, I decide to just change the address to a Chinese one and see what happens. It lets me choose a province. Yay! Now it let's me get all the way to the payment method. I put in all my information with my Bank of America (BOA) card, and it looked like it was going to let me do it, but then it failed. I don't know why. We have contacted BOA in the past, and did this year to tell them we will be spending money and to not lock up the card because we are in a different country. It has worked in the past, so there is no reason it shouldn't work now.

So then I decide to just call AirAsia and set it up that way. I look for the contact info, and click on China. It gives me a number. I call the number. The number is out of order. I call the number with a one in front of it, and it is a hospital emergency line. I say, "Sorry, wrong number." And hang up. Now, I decide that maybe we could live chat with someone on the website. Ah ha! There is a tab for that...I click on it. I have to be a member to talk to them. I become a member, and sign in. I click the chat live button. They make me sign in again. A box pops up and tells me everything the live chat function cannot do. I cannot order tickets, I will have to call the service line for that. Ok, I think that is one of my requests: a working number. A chat box comes up and says I will have to wait 93 minutes because I am the 63rd person in queue. I wait the FULL 93 minutes and finally talk with someone. I tell the lady about my problem, and I basically boiled it down to I need to get a correct number for the China branch of AirAsia. I ask the woman this question. She gives me all of the same info that is on the internet. I tell her this information is incorrect. She tells me this is all the information she has. She also includes the numbers for Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Both of which I cannot use my Chinese phone for because they are technically out of the country. So, we use our skype account to call Hong Kong. Some random man answers the phone. This is his personal cell phone. Not AirAsia Hong Kong. End. Of. Rope.

So, where do we go from here? How does a website ask for a State and then not let me choose one, and THEN say I"M doing something wrong??!!! How does an airline that has been voted the best airline for the past 3 or 4 years have a website that doesn't even have any of their numbers correct or up to date?! Just because it is cheap? How does that make for good business? HOW!! HOW!!!??? It's absolutely ridiculous. I just don't understand how it works. Because it has worked for us in the past without having to do any of the above. I've taken many deep breaths and I'm just about done. We were gonna go from Malaysia to Vietnam, so we may just end up having to cut out Malaysia all together. We wouldn't care too much, but we were excited about getting to meet up with Kimberly and Gary. *Sigh* Anyway, we shall see what happens. 2 days to go... I'll let ya know. John King, a friend and mentor of ours said this is a good opportunity to build patience. This is very true.

If you got this far in the blog, I pity you. You probably need to go take a nap from all the reading. You're a true friend! Haha! Thanks for reading! I love you all!