tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-247953342010-02-20T01:31:19.033-08:00Stream-of-consciousness tales of a single mom and her two kids as we embark on a life-altering adventure.Teresa, Stuart and Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07906720281204468635tlcpdx@mac.comBlogger347125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24795334.post-55188071121902690402009-12-30T07:48:00.003-08:002009-12-30T07:59:03.213-08:00

What was originally intended as a dinner party, turned out to be an intimate family-style dinner with our household plus Stuart's friend and his dad. The food was good and the view out the windows was beautiful, so as disappointing as it was to have to cancel the party due to the snow... well, at least was enjoyable. The trees that surround the house were covered with a fair helping of snow and

Teresa, Stuart and Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07906720281204468635tlcpdx@mac.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24795334.post-65352310369302294352009-11-09T06:41:00.001-08:002009-11-09T06:45:17.809-08:00

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia...The KL Tower is fourth tallest building in the world and features, much like the Space Needle in Seattle, a revolving restaurant and an observation deck. We, obviously, were there in the evening and couldn't figure out how to get into the park where it's located. Frustrated, but I'm still shaky with heights, so I didn't mind too much.

Teresa, Stuart and Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07906720281204468635tlcpdx@mac.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24795334.post-37722868368964142942009-10-11T07:30:00.003-07:002009-10-11T07:39:25.561-07:00

Teresa, Stuart and Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07906720281204468635tlcpdx@mac.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24795334.post-50735500315394621562009-10-06T06:40:00.002-07:002009-10-06T07:01:19.867-07:00

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is an incredibly modern city that bustles all day (and probably all night, though we always stayed in). People are always coming and going somewhere with tourists nearly always heading to the KLCC. It was the one place I definitely wanted to see--home of what was just a decade ago the tallest buildings in the world, the Petronas Towers.Behind the towers, as part of the KLCC

Teresa, Stuart and Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07906720281204468635tlcpdx@mac.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24795334.post-206974148056635272009-10-01T17:02:00.002-07:002009-10-01T17:20:17.710-07:00

So, there are a ton of photos that I didn't get to share due to a number of Internet/computer/camera problems, but now that we're back home...here they come.The first few come from our stay at the Tokyo airport. We'd originally planned to take the train into the city, but when we got up there to purchase tickets we realized that it was going to cost us nearly 200USD to get into/out of Tokyo.

Teresa, Stuart and Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07906720281204468635tlcpdx@mac.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24795334.post-69275661391397294662009-09-28T16:27:00.002-07:002009-09-28T18:00:36.223-07:00

After the time traveling with Stuart and his friend, I figured I could write a little about taking teens abroad. Lucky me, Travelfish published it. Read it here.

Teresa, Stuart and Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07906720281204468635tlcpdx@mac.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24795334.post-79528129301914290052009-09-18T20:12:00.002-07:002009-09-18T20:24:50.773-07:00

Visiting the coral-filled shore...Watching a trained monkey retrieve coconuts then sit on the kids' shoulders...Riding through the jungle on an elephant...

Teresa, Stuart and Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07906720281204468635tlcpdx@mac.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24795334.post-62686117969584297672009-09-16T17:12:00.003-07:002009-09-16T17:51:06.245-07:00

We made it out of Bangkok via train on Tuesday morning and spent the next eight hours choo-chooing down to a small city called Surat Thani. The kids slept nearly half the time, which was good for them (and me). Audrey was kind enough to let me borrow her lap for a bit and I, too, caught a bit of a cat nap. We'd been out far too late the night before at the night market (but did find Stuart some

Teresa, Stuart and Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07906720281204468635tlcpdx@mac.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24795334.post-6109436037549108522009-09-14T00:48:00.003-07:002009-09-14T01:05:13.027-07:00

Long time no see, eh? Thanks to intermittent Internet in our dorm room, then the travel and lousy Internet at the hotel we are staying at... yeah, it's been far too long. Brief update...-We spent two days in Nha Trang, one of them at Vinpearlland. The *best* place to take the kids for a holiday, I swear. The waterpark and amusement rides and bumper cars and arcade all added up to a lot of fun. We

Teresa, Stuart and Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07906720281204468635tlcpdx@mac.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24795334.post-23633148219345980452009-08-28T23:28:00.002-07:002009-08-28T23:48:15.146-07:00

We arrived in Tam Ky this early afternoon to an ecstatic Mrs. Hanh waiting for us at the train station. Audrey has now surpassed her in height, how cute. She got us back to the GVN house via taxi, got Grandma starting lunch for us and headed out for a meeting. Meanwhile Me Ba came over. She works at the Quang Nam Baby Orphanage still and the head caretaker there; loving and nurturing each child

Teresa, Stuart and Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07906720281204468635tlcpdx@mac.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24795334.post-9842549478937947082009-08-27T18:52:00.002-07:002009-08-27T19:03:17.653-07:00

Teresa, Stuart and Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07906720281204468635tlcpdx@mac.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24795334.post-38415523721926436582009-08-27T16:20:00.002-07:002009-08-27T16:38:27.581-07:00

I've been trying to update this page for some time now with pictures, but rarely can I get on and even more rarely can I upload pictures. What a shame. So what's been happening?Last Sunday we went to the beach with students from the first year: Giang, Giang and Thanh all came, the last two bringing along their families as well. The group of us took a taxi out to Sam Son beach and hung out for

Teresa, Stuart and Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07906720281204468635tlcpdx@mac.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24795334.post-51412369670678293392009-08-25T02:52:00.002-07:002009-08-25T03:15:16.766-07:00

And the definition of wealthy changes wherever you go. In Vietnam, I make enough money to afford us to spend our weekends in Ha Noi, traipsing around the city eating expensive Western food and taking taxis to museums. I come back to Thanh Hoa and gripe about the insanity of prices in the northern capitol, glad to be back in a small city with prices I'm more than happy to pay. Less than a dollar

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After more than nine weeks in Thanh Hoa, we finally returned to the beach that sits only 15 km away. I'm not sure what took us so long to get back there, but either way the situation was remedied. I had the middle of the week off, so on Wednesday morning we took a taxi out to the beach we'd visited so many times before.Stuart and Zach collected shells, crabs and other "waste" from the fishing

Teresa, Stuart and Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07906720281204468635tlcpdx@mac.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24795334.post-41825499324743405292009-08-17T19:18:00.003-07:002009-08-17T19:32:10.985-07:00

How is it that no matter where you are life does not go according to plans? Our time has been cut short by more than a week; a week that we were going to spend traveling around the country. Unfortunately when our visas were renewed, they only gave us until the 12th. I will finish work on the 1oth, head to Hanoi, then leave the country. I'm so frustrated I could scream. Not only for the limited

Teresa, Stuart and Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07906720281204468635tlcpdx@mac.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24795334.post-85485374858902910082009-08-12T03:17:00.003-07:002009-08-12T04:12:00.562-07:00

On Saturday afternoon we headed out to Vincom Towers to visit the arcade. You can imagine our disappointment when we arrived and the doors were locked, the room was empty. Of course there was a sign, but we couldn't read it. Frustrated, we decided to walk around the mall and just happened to stumble upon the arcade.The kids played all sorts of game, including (to my utter dismay) this shoot-'

Teresa, Stuart and Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07906720281204468635tlcpdx@mac.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24795334.post-34719595287652717692009-08-11T04:20:00.000-07:002009-08-12T04:28:41.229-07:00

Teresa, Stuart and Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07906720281204468635tlcpdx@mac.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24795334.post-86026179261765055432009-08-05T09:03:00.001-07:002009-08-05T09:09:25.653-07:00

We're right in the middle of it; the kids are in Hanoi with Keith and Trang while I'm down in Thanh Hoa. We are all edging into the red zone. Hold on tight.

Teresa, Stuart and Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07906720281204468635tlcpdx@mac.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24795334.post-84779671531178019932009-08-03T19:07:00.003-07:002009-08-03T19:11:39.415-07:00

It's images like this, with symbols and markings that I can only partially decipher, that worry me. We're not too far outside the pink on the far left. So far, no luck on finding much more about the path this one is taking, but the planned trip to Ha Long Bay (which is in the pink zone) for Saturday may have to be postponed.

Teresa, Stuart and Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07906720281204468635tlcpdx@mac.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24795334.post-30756513670779756632009-08-02T17:51:00.004-07:002009-08-02T18:38:06.845-07:00

Last Friday was the last day for the A2 class; they'll be taking the TOEFL-iBT in just a couple more weeks. As a way to celebrate the end of their studies and the final push toward their test, we went out to dinner as a group. Our original dinner with the students had been at a restaurant that prominently features goat meat (called "The Most Goat") and we'd been secretly hoping we'd return there,

Teresa, Stuart and Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07906720281204468635tlcpdx@mac.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24795334.post-58681755698664844372009-07-30T01:50:00.003-07:002009-07-30T02:31:39.738-07:00

Today we were, after much planning and procrastinating, able to get out to the Thanh Hoa orphanage. Located much closer to the beach than the city, it's a good-sized orphanage that is home to more then sixty children from the area. We'd gone at the request of an adoptive mom who had brought a little girl, Thuy, home from there last year. She had a letter and photos to be brought back to the

Teresa, Stuart and Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07906720281204468635tlcpdx@mac.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24795334.post-66837266095869721072009-07-24T17:42:00.003-07:002009-07-24T18:09:36.447-07:00

Living out in Thanh Hoa, we see the same pale faces over and over again--the three of us plus one of the Kaplan teachers. That's it. We never run into other Westerners at the supermarket or walking the streets of Thanh Hoa. And even though we know we look vastly different, we have stopped feeling vastly different. Familiar faces wave hello. We know where to get banh mi, how to get to the shopping

Teresa, Stuart and Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07906720281204468635tlcpdx@mac.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24795334.post-70810142832266443642009-07-22T04:56:00.003-07:002009-07-22T05:19:21.663-07:00

Stuart's order of Grilled Beef with Potatoes at Da Lan, an 'upscale' restaurant in Thanh Hoa. Banana Blossom Salad made in over an hour by yours trulyNuoc Chanh Sua Chua (Yogurt Lemonade) and Sinh To Xoai (Mango Smoothie)at New Sky Cafe in dowtown Thanh HoaRolling out tortillas for Rice & Bean Burritos,using a spaghetti sauce-filled Milo bottle as a rolling pin.Vegetarian Spring Rolls made

Teresa, Stuart and Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07906720281204468635tlcpdx@mac.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24795334.post-46854828526201267472009-07-14T20:02:00.003-07:002009-07-14T21:38:39.923-07:00

Since I’m working five days a week for the entire duration of our time in Vietnam, our chances of seeing much of the country are pretty limited. So I’ve had to come up with a short list of places we want to go. What we’ve decided on, and hoping to make it work, are visits to:Ha Long BaySa PaCuc Phuong National ParkSam Son beachHoi AnTam KyDa LatWe’ve been to all but Cuc Phuong and Da Lat on our

Teresa, Stuart and Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07906720281204468635tlcpdx@mac.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24795334.post-51261891047559271592009-07-14T15:58:00.003-07:002009-07-14T16:00:48.347-07:00

Just a shout-out to my mom who's celebrating her 60th birthday today. No matter when we're away, we always miss someone's special occasion. This time it's Mom's birthday. Next will be my sister's. But we'll bring back gifts! Not sure that makes them feel much better, but know that we'd be there if we could.

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