HAPPY HALLOWEEN  – we made it through the night!  I eventually got more sleep and everyone except me got up around 4:30am. I slept for a few more hours which I desperately needed. In fact I’m thinking of claiming a bed all my own for tonight so I can get some real deep restorative sleep. Right now I feel TERRIFIC thanks to Comtrex with a side cocktail of Advil. Haha. I sure hope I don’t run out of cold meds as they are very expensive here. But it would be worth it for this relief. I thought I’d die from the pain in my neck when I woke up this morning (swollen glands). That stuff is magic!

My plan is to lay low today and just focus on getting rested and relaxed, settled in and healed. We had a great breakfast at the hotel breakfast buffet. I actually find that I do not want anything to do with American food at all so I mostly had Vnese fried rice which was amazing, some sort of tropical juice. Yummm. We found out, too late, they have a whole Pho bar. This after Teegan had two huge bowls of some other soup so he’s excited about breakfast tomorrow so he can finally have a whole bunch of Pho!

In other fun news:

This morning I showered (ahhhh) and flooded the bathroom (hahaha) and used up all the hot water in like 5 minutes. I can do faster showers if I know I have to – guess I’ll just shave my legs tomorrow. J

We almost got hit by a car walking to breakfast. I know how to walk the streets of Ha Noi but my guard was down and I haven’t fully made the transition yet, I guess. I thought this Expat hotel would be different. It isn’t. At least he didn’t honk at us. I think my deer in the headlights look was enough to freak him out.

Teegan and I spent a half hour trying to get a mechanical pencil to work and failed. This is not a good sign of things to come! Haha

I was able to call my mom on Skype last night. That was pretty cool.

There is a large typhoon hitting central Vietnam tomorrow. Addison and our family should not be affected but I am worried about another orphanage our agency works at in Quang Nam.

We can’t use anything electrical. We didn’t bring the right transformers or something. I still don’t really get it. The hotel loans some but they are out. I have no idea how I will do my hair tomorrow.

We leave tomorrow at 8am (8pm Oct 31 EST) for Phu Tho where we will travel by car on dirt roads for 2+ hours and then spend a few hours at the orphanage before heading to the Giving & Receiving ceremony where we will officially become Addison’s family. Because it will be such a big trip, we have a lot of preparation to do. It is also Dalton’s birthday so I need to call around and see if I can find a bakery to bring a cake tomorrow evening and wrap a few gifts we brought for him. We should be back from Phu Tho around 5pm or so (which is 5am EST Nov 1)  and I will post when I can although I imagine things might be nuts for a bit settling in with Addison.

Tonight the kids are going trick-or-treating. No kidding. We happen to have a bag of candy we brought for this purpose, also very odd don’t you think? So we will TOT at 6pm although the kids are totally freaked out about not having costumes. At least they won’t miss out on Halloween after all AND I didn’t have to make/buy costumes. I win!

I forgot to mention yesterday that we have two pretty willow trees in our backyard. We LOVE willow trees so this is a bonus for us. Today it isn’t as hazy so we have had a good view of the lake we are on and the rice paddy workers around it. This morning we watched people kayak across the lake. Oh and I will say that at 6am there were mosquitoes EVERYWHERE. By 9 or so, I think it is too hot and they go away until evening but it is just something to note for those of you traveling up this way in the future. We had only brought a bit of bug spray but we plan to just stay in later or spray up before leaving if we leave earlier in the day.

Here’s a poll for you all:

If the hotel claims it’s water is treated would you:

a)       still boil it before use and rely heavily on bottled water?

b)      Use it as-is for washing dishes, brushing teeth, etc but rely on bottled water for consumption?

c)       Use hotel water as-is for everything?

It is a pain to try to be so careful about the water when I’m not sure it is necessary. We read today about some higher compliances that were created for hotel water, anyway, because of APEC. I know our hotel is an APEC hotel so they were affected. But their water was treated before. I’m just not sure what to do. Err on the side of caution? Or moderately? Or not at all?

Well, I may update again tonight if I have anything to post but the real updates will begin tomorrow after we get back from the G&R with Addison in tow.