I'm/We're back! First post of 2018...

Check out the outside air temperature while we flew above Greenland!  -84 degrees F!!

Hi Everyone!  We arrived back in Ho Chi Minh City on January 11, just after midnight.  We've been on the go ever since, it seems.  Of course, Bob has been here since September so he is settled in already.  We're in a different apartment (but same building as last year) so the layout is a little different (kitchen smaller, no oven for baking, but yes to a microwave, and we have a gas stove instead of induction which is much better to us!).

We have finished 2 weeks of teaching since we've been back.  The first week consisted of several testing sessions of practical skills (and practice sessions beforehand), as well as listening to and grading student presentations since the students are finishing their first semester and beginning semester 2 before Tet (the lunar New Year) this year.  Tet last year fell in January, so it falls later this year.  It's similar to how Easter for us can vary between March and April.

Dr. Bob giving advice regarding different illumination techniques during a slit lamp (microscope) practice session with 3rd year students.

Students practicing skills on each other

I had my first lecture in Applied Optics this past Thursday with second year students, 26 new (to me) students to learn names and attempt proper pronunciations!  We also had 2 practical sessions (we split into two groups of 13) to teach edging of rimless lenses because 26 students can't all use the two available edgers at the same time.  Bob has begun his Contact Lens 2 classes with the 3rd year class, as well as helping in the Academic Vision Clinic when his schedule allows.  Currently the 4th years cover clinic 3 mornings a week with a local ophthalmologist and Mr. Long, our headmaster.  We are a bit understaffed presently without Dr. Koh who was here last year but has gone back to her job in Singapore, and without Ngan, one of the other Vietnamese optometrists, who is home with her new baby for a little while yet!  We have acquired another "foreign lecturer" (since November) from Ghana: Kwame, an optometrist who has been teaching most recently in Fiji.  He left last week to return briefly (we hope) to Ghana to bring his wife back here.  However, he is having some issues with his Vietnam visa and we hope he can get the issues ironed out soon and he can come back in a timely manner!  I don't have any pictures yet with Kwame because I only met with him once or twice in the week we overlapped here.  Hopefully soon!

Things don't seem quite as "crazy different" as they did when we first arrived so sometimes things that I used to think were strange are just normal here.  Part of me thinks this post is somewhat boring but I have had people ask me to keep up my blog!  (Thank you for being interested!)  We have had a couple of fun social experiences lately or things I do note while being out and about, so here they are:

Because I don't nap during our 2-hour lunch break and I like to be outdoors (yes, even in this 90-degree-ish heat), I usually take a half hour walk or so on my lunch hour.  Going "around the block" the university is on takes about 30-40 minutes.  BIG NEWS, a big mall is going in on the street behind the university!  Bob is very excited that there is a B-Dubs going in!  Starbucks fans always notice the Starbucks first. 

I rejoined my gym the weekend I arrived and it's been fun to have people recognize me and welcome me back.  My Saturday morning aerobics ladies promptly invited me out for breakfast after our first 7 am aerobics.  You know, you have to put back all those calories you've sweated out!

I really work on getting names right:  Phuong, Tuyet, Song, Linh, Binh, me, Huong.

Bob plays futsal (5-on-5 soccer) on Wednesday nights and some of his male students have joined in playing also.  He usually plays hockey Thursdays except for the last 2 weeks there has been some conflict between the Canadian Chamber of Commerce who organizes the games and the rink's charges, so there has been no hockey to his great disappointment.

One of my gym friends invited me to her daughter's wedding this past Friday and because we try to say "yes" to things to experience the culture, we went!  Weddings here are very different from US weddings.  The part we see is the reception basically, since the marriage part is done at the home of the bride and then the groom, traditionally.  The reception is a nice dinner in a wedding hall that will have more than one wedding party happening.  This was our 3rd wedding experience here and this one had a ballet dance and a magician on stage!  Always something new...

The wedding venue was called "Riverside Palace."

The ballet dancers

Little angel ballet dancers joined in--so cute!

The magician was amazing!  He produced a dove from handkerchiefs, etc. several times and ended with producing a chicken!

My last photos have to do with Tet.  The first day of Tet, the lunar New Year, is on Feb. 16.  Businesses are decorating already including having elaborate paintings done on their doors, and wiring small flowers on trees. This year is the "year of the dog" (last year it was the rooster, in the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar), so pictures usually include a dog.  Tet here is like Christmas/New Year's back home.  Many people travel to visit family in their villages/provinces.  We have no classes on the 9th but will have a program of dance and celebration at the university put on by students and faculty.  Then we have 2 weeks off.  We are looking at a small trip early in the week then are excited to host our first visitors, my brother and his wife from Chicago!  It will be fun to show them our big city and favorite food places.

This is the painting on the doors we enter to get into our apartment lobby.

Last year's Kentucky Fried Chicken (around the corner from our apartment entrance) is now a King BBQ restaurant, and here is their painting with the door open.  The flowers are 3D, tissue glued on to the window.

That's all my news and update for now!  As always, thank you for following our adventures.  Until next time!