Cambodia - Day 2


On the second day we went to the temples. So incredible. They're HUGE and old (built between the 8th and 13th century). How did they build such amazing temples without modern machinery? There were so many intricate carvings and big bas-reliefs. Just an awe inspiring place. Wow.

Below are loads of pix. The wats at Siem Reap are a photographer's dream. I just have a Canon Elph point and shoot. I wish I had a digital SLR with major lenses.



In the afternoon we went Quad riding - very fun! Another fun way to see "real" Siem Reap. We stopped at a rice paddy and learned how to harvest rice. It's harder than it looks! Can't imagine doing that all day in the super hot Cambodian sun. The kid that showed us how to do it was 14 years old. We had 3 kids with us - 11, 13 and barely 15. It makes you think. (Ya know, of using your kids for labor. I could be making some money off these slackers.) There are some Night Market pix at the end, including crispy cricket snacks!






Cambodia - WOW!


I've wanted to go to Angkor Wat since I moved to Asia over 4 years ago. I finally got to go this week and - WOW! - that's all I can say is WOW! Amazing temple ruins and a great town. If you ever get a chance GO to Siem Reap, Cambodia. (I'm going to break this vacation into several posts because it'll be too long and I don't have time to finish it right now.)

On the first day, we went on a long horseback ride. I'm afraid of horses, so I volunteered to ride a horse that barely liked to move. Not a good choice because he kept stopping to eat and generally wouldn't move. I had to keep pulling up his head - not easy! - and kicking him to get him to move - not easy! It would have been easier for me to give the horse a horseback ride! Aidan and I switched horses and I got one that just followed the horse in front of him - easy! I road Rinaldo the rest of the way. My latin lover horse was a good ride, but to be perfectly honest, I don't really enjoy horseback riding. I always think I will, but I don't. I grew up in Jersey, what do you expect? It was a great way to see the back country of Siem Reap. Kids kept running out to the road yelling, "Hello! Hello!"


We celebrated Aidan's 15th birthday in Siem Reap that day (Dec. 27th). We ate at Viva Mexican, which was EXCELLENT, went to the night market and then had birthday ice-cream at The Blue Pumpkin. Hard to believe my cuddly little baby is now a hairy 15 year old! 















Our friends from Shanghai, Jeff and Faye, walked by while we were eating dinner! Such a small world! It was great to see them again.  :o)

100 Book Challenge Update



Last January I joined the 100 Book Challenge at J. Kaye's website. I ended up reading 115 books, but that's counting children's books and I'm an elementary librarian, so I get paid to read them! Here's a breakdown of what I read:

32 Novels for adults or older teens (the large majority were adult books)
10 Novels for children (helps with my job so I can recommend books to kids)
72 Picture books (again, for my job, but I looooooove picture books!)

And that adds up to 114. Hmmm. I probably read 73 picture books.

I'm disappointed that I only read 32 "real" books. I really thought I could read one a week, but I also moved to a new country, got a new job and dealt with the decline and death of my father. Not exactly good reading situations. Thirty two books is a lot more than most Americans. According to an article in the Washington Post (2007), 25% of Americans didn't read a book at all the previous year. (Yikes!) The typical person read 4 books. Well, I have most of America beat!!!

I read a lot of great stuff. If you want to see the full list, go back to my original post. The fun aspect of the challenge is that it forces you to keep track of what you've read during the year and your list is in chronological order. I also subscribe to librarything.com (it's free!) and that let's me see all the books I've read. Well, the ones I can remember anyway. That's where I get that cool widget on the right side of my blog that shows random covers of books I've read. Very visual! Very fun!

I didn't write any book reviews or anything. No interest in that. But my favorite books of 2009 were:

  • The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. It won the national book award for teen literature and boy did it deserve it. Amazing story. Great writing. Terrific book.
  • The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. I read a lot of literature set in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and that region of the world. I'm finding really great literature coming out of there right now. The White Tiger is an amazing novel about a taxi driver in modern India. 
  • The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child by Donalyn Miller. I don't like nonfiction because I'm all about characters, but this is a terrific book for teachers and librarians. I had to talk myself through it because nonfiction just shuts my brain off. I would say, "Read 1 chapter of this and then read as much of your novel as you want." It worked! That makes it sound like a bad book, but it's excellent, I'm just a bad NF reader. Her ideas about turning kids on to reading made me re-think how I run my library and present myself to my students. If you're a teacher or have children, read this.
  • Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. Won the Pulitzer and rightly so. The writing is amazing. It's a collection of 13 short stories that are somehow connected to the main character, Olive Kitteridge. Olive isn't your typical protaganist that you fall in love with. She has short comings. Many, frustrating short comings. I often confuse my opinions about a book with my opinions about the characters. For example, I used to say that I didn't like The Corrections, but in reality I didn't like the characters. It was so well written that I transferred my dislike for the characters to the book. Same with Olive Kitteridge. I wanted to shake her at times to open her eyes. The author said she wrote it in 13 short stories where Olive is sometimes in the background because she didn't think the reader could take a full novel centered around her. That sums it up for me. That being said, Olive has some very good qualities, as well. She's not all bad. She's human.
  • A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. I know I'm a little behind the ball on this one. I loved The Kite Runner and this is another amazing novel by Hosseini. 
I read other good ones, too, but those are my stand outs. I'm going to do the 100 Book Challenge for 2010, too. It starts tomorrow. My goal is to read more than 32 adult books and to read more than 10 children's novels. I encourage you to sign up. If you read more than 4 books, you're doing better than most Americans!


I have a pile of books next to my bed for my vacation. I wonder what I'll start with.

Christmas '09

This year we were HOME for Christmas. By home, I mean our townhouse in Saigon. This is the first time in 8 or 9 years that we weren't somewhere else on Christmas Day. I can't complain because "somewhere else" usually means a beautiful beach like Pukhet or Koh Samui, but it was terrific to be home for the holidays! I'm heading to the airport in about an hour, but I wanted to post some Christmas pix. (We're going to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Sooooo excited!)

Happy holidays from our fam to yours!


Mike went to Bali in November for a school trip (tough life!) and brought this awesome guitar mirror for Aidan.

Brenna really, really, really wanted a camera. Santa heard her!








































We are lucky to have Mike's brother Dan and his daughter Hannah with us during the holidays. Aunt Lisa and Uncle Andrei sent Brenna and Hannah a fun karaoke gizmo for their iPods!

Aunt Lisa and Uncle Andrei sent Aidan a strobe light, some fun drum stick pencils and these awesome things you stick on your walls and then you can write on them. If he doesn't put them up within the week, I'm totally stealing them! He really wanted a strobe light! Who knew? Apparently Aunt Lisa! We tested it out several times - very cool and very seizure inducing!!!

Grandpa relocated to Sun City, Arizona this summer and sent Arizona State t-shirts for all 3 grandkids. They're styling!

Hannah loves CSI New York and CSI Miami, so we're sending her home with both series for her viewing pleasure. (Que The Who theme music...)







































Santa brought Aid Skullcandy headphones. Trendy, but great sound. Those big, Princess Leah headphones are sooooo back in style.







































What do you give a teenager who's growing up in Asia? American junk food, of course! Brenna gave Aidan Doritos, Pop Tarts and an AW Root Beer for Christmas. Uncle Dan and Hannah added to the collection. He was a happy boy!!!

Vacation: Intrigue, Deceit and VICTORY!


I can't believe I forgot to post this picture in my first vacation post. Brenna loves to play Spy Alley and I stink at it! Spy Alley is a game where you pick a card that tells you your spy identity - which country you're from. It's a secret, of course. The object is to gather up spy items (passwords, keys, codes and disguises) and make it to your embassy before someone correctly guesses what country you're from. You make decisions to throw people off, etc.

Here's a typical game for me:

1. I randomly pick a card - Germany - and NO ONE sees.

2. I pick up the die to roll for my first roll of the game. I have an empty board and I'm still on Start. I shake the die in my hand like a pile of salted peanuts.

3. Before I even roll the die Brenna says, "You're German!"

4. Now I have to play it cool and not show the shock and disbelief on my face, so I reply with, "Yup, I'm German." or "Why don't you guess right now?" - If a player makes an incorrect guess, they're out. What I really want to say is, "For the love of God, how do you ALWAYS know my identity???"

5. I make it through the game until Brenna lands on the safety spot. This is where players can guess the identity of another player and if they guess incorrectly they stay in the game. Brenna excitedly blurts out, "Mom's German!" and I hand over all my money and spy items to my 11 year old Spy Alley whiz kid.

6. I ask Bren, "How do you always know what I am?" She replies, "I can just tell!" Huh? "You just look German." What does that mean??? Makes me a tad suspicious. Is my sweet, fun daughter a Spy Alley cheater? I don't think so. I've kept control of the spy cards and shuffled and made sure everything was top secret and she still guesses correctly.

Tuesday, December 23rd was a good day. The sun was shining, the air was clean, something magical was in the air and I WON AT SPY ALLEY!!! I was playing with Hannah and Brenna and here's the victory photo I took. As you can see, my opponents were not thrilled with my victory!


Vacation: Part 1. So Far, So Good!

Our 3 week winter break officially began at 12:30 on Friday! Woo-hoo! Mike and I started our vacation with lunch at a local pub with a bunch of other teachers. Then Mike went to get a haircut which includes 45 minutes (or more!) of an incredible head massage/shampoo.  I went downtown with 3 friends and got a foot, head, arm, back massage at Royal Foot Massage. It ended with an awesome back massage that looked painful, but felt great. Ahhh!

Left: Long row of massage gals giving foot massages. 70 minutes of bliss for $7. Nice!





On Sunday night, my friend Laura from SAS came to spend the night. It was so fantastic to spend time with her! Luckily she enjoys playing card games. Brenna is a card game addict and she taught Laura a couple new games. Laura then beat us at most of the games. Geez! We played A LOT of games!
Left: Brenna teaching Laura how to play Rat-a-Tat Cat on our rooftop terrace.






Left: Laura heading back to the airport. She loooooves Vietnam, so hopefully this wasn't her only stay at Chateau Williams!


















Last night (Monday night) Mike's brother Dan and his daughter Hannah arrived close to midnight. I thought they would be zombies today, but they were amazing! We went to The Gourmet Shop for breakfast (left).


After a leisurely breakfast and of course a stop at the smoothie stand, I took Brenna and Hannah to get our nails painted. The girls had a lot of choices to make. What color?? What designs??












They watched TV while being pampered. Not a bad life for an 11 & 13 year old!!!














The final result! Christmas trees, snowmen, wreaths, snowflakes. Soooo cute and festive!  :o)  I got french tips with a Christmas tree on each thumb!


In the afternoon we went downtown. We walked around the backpacker area, shopped at Ben Thanh market and went to an early dinner at Quan An Ngon, a delicious restaurant with very local food. The owner took the best street stall cooks and created a restaurant. They all work in their own area. The menu is extensive with both food and drink and it's very cheap. Mike and I love the vermicelli with friend spring rolls and it's less than $2.00.

















Steroid Snail Update

Well, I found out that gigantic snails leave gigantic....poop. Hmmm. Not really sure what to say about this. Anyone?


The Snail That Ate Saigon

Yes, Loca is a territorial, yappy dog. But since we've gotten here she's grown accustomed to our little front yard and all the happenings in the hood. She generally doesn't bark when she's out there. She barks when someone right at our gate. This morning she was barking and barking and barking. I looked out the window and she wasn't by the gate. I started to think that maybe someone was IN our yard so I went downstairs to take a look. She was barking at a snail. Ha! What a whimp! Barking at a snail! But this was no ordinary snail, this was a snail on steroids! This was Super Snail! It was huge. Vietnamese people are the smallest people I've ever seen, but damn, they grow BIG snails! I took a picture and held my sunglasses to give it some perspective. I'm not sure it does it justice. From the tip of its head to the tip of its tail, it was about the length of my sunglasses. I've never seen a snail the width of my face!


Terry Fox Run 2009


This morning we did the Terry Fox 5K Walk. Terry Fox was an amazing young guy from Canada who lost his leg to cancer and then ran a marathon, EVERYDAY for 143 days across Canada to raise awareness for cancer research. He wanted to run from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but after 143 days he had to stop because the cancer was in his lungs. What an incredible person! There are Terry Fox runs every year around the world. We've participated in them in Venezuela, China and now Vietnam.




Mike, Brenna, Loca and I did the walk. Aidan wouldn't get out of bed. Geez. Below are pix from the day. Big crowds!













































Hot dog! Loca walked for most of it, but petered out about 5 minutes from the end, so Mike helped out. Poor little thing!



























Foxy Family!



























We went out to breakfast at The Gourmet Shop cafe after the walk.





















Expats in the Hood!

I really like our neighborhood. We live in a townhouse less than a mile from school. It's a straight shot to school - we go out of our complex and go down the street until we hit the school, no turns, no bends in the road. But the street we go down is my favorite part of this whole area. There are cafes, restaurants, smoothie stands, massage places and more. It just has a cozy, fun, vacationy feel.

The other night Mike and I were having a little date night. While walking home from the smoothie stand we stopped in to The Tavern to listen to some live acoustic music. A female singer and 2 guys on guitar playing Aerosmith, The Beatles, etc. I love having all this right outside our door.

Below are some pix from our hood. Our little corner of the world that we call home right now.

Mike talking to the smoothie stand folks. We're regular customers!




















The friendliest smoothie stand lady. I think she smiles at us so much because she wouldn't have a job without all our smoothie purchases!
















One of the many cafes on our street. They hang lights in the trees. It looks festive every night!
















Another cafe.





























This is one of our favorite restaurants. It's called Vegas and has good food and an awesome salt water fish tank. I'll have to take pix of the tank the next time we go.

























Just so you know we really live in Vietnam - here are some grilled chicken feet! Yum! They're a favorite in Vietnam, China and probably other Asian countries. I think I'll pass, thanks!








































Another Tournament, Another Championship!



Today was the MS basketball city tournament. It was held at our school. It started at 1:00, but I had to teach, so I only got to see the championship game and WE WON! Again! The girls (and boys!) went undefeated - AGAIN - and won it all - AGAIN! How fun is that! Brenna was really excited, as you can imagine. Afterward she ran over to us and said, "We won 2 championships in 3 days!!!" Nice! SSIS MS basketball rocks! (That's my number 4 in the front, on the left.)

The championship game came down to SSIS vs. the Taiwanese school for both the girls and boys. The Taiwan school beat both our teams during the regular season - they're really good. SSIS girls beat them twice today. The championship game wasn't even that close. I think it was 22-12 or something. The boys game was very close. We 22-18, but it was 18-18 with less than 2 minutes to go. Great games!


Current Time in Saigon, Vietnam

About Me

My name is Colleen and I currently live in Saigon, Vietnam. (aka Ho Chi Minh City) I have a husband, Mike, and 2 children. Our son Aidan is 14 and our daughter Brenna is 11. I am the elementary librarian at Saigon South International School. I love to read, be outside, play any sport that's going on, hang out with friends, and laugh.

What I'm Reading Now:

  • Picture Perfect by Jodie Picoult
  • Buddhism for Beginners by Thubet Chodron