I'm...dreaming, of a wet Christmas...

I saw the bells and the lights and the Christmas trees on the backs of motorbikes, and I heard the classics and plans of good cheer and I Just.  Couldn't.  Feel it.

"Aww, is this your first year away?"

asked a seasoned expat friend.  Sigh, it is.
The last couple of weeks have been a little tough, tougher than I had anticipated.  I debated including these woes into the blog and decided it was a good idea after all.  I made the decision to move out here and accept the ups and the downs.
So I got involved in as many Christmas-y festivities as possible - mission force the feeling!!

Rise of the Spiders

It has been quite the eventful week of seeings and doings so I figured I'd jot a few of them down.  Our weather has been impeccable, and my dad and I jumped through a few hoops getting my slackline shipped out to Da Nang (long story about never sending anything with text or maps through the mail

), so I took to the beach in search of the perfect place to set up and have some chill time with the line.
This proved to be slightly more difficult than I had anticipated.  I needed the right distance between palms, a soft landing level ground, and preferably out of constant sight.  As a westerner, I get enough stares as it is, I didn't want to attract even more attention, especially since I hadn't slacklined since July.

Lately...

I have been meaning to sit down and blog for the last couple of weeks.  Sometimes it seems that I just can't find the words for things that happen, so here are several snippets of happenings:

Thanksgiving:  Many countries have celebrations of their own for thankfulness, especially when connected with the annual harvest, so celebrating Thanksgiving in Vietnam wasn't so far of a stretch.  We also have a handful of American and other western expats living in Da Nang, so many of us came together for a traditional plate of delicious food at Bread of Life.  I had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, green beans and even pumpkin pie!  The one BIG difference between T-Day in America and T-Day here is that I had to go to work two hours later, feeling the full force of turkey pulling down my eyelids.