I’m still here, too!

Hello (from Tamara),

Sorry for the long absence from the blog! My recent excuse is that I’ve been sick. I had a fever of 101.5 – 102.5°F for 2 days, followed by a sore throat, and of course thought Avian Flu! But it turned out to be a nice familiar Western malady -strep throat plus an ear infection. At least I had help while I was suffering – Mrs. Kich, our potential house cleaner/babysitter/cook, came over with her son, and they played with and fed Maia while I rested. She brought me some strong rice wine. Not to drink (she made a point of telling me) but to heat up and inhale the fumes. I was dubious but it really took away my headache! I like Mrs. Kich’s auntie qualities, and I think it would be nice to have her work for us. Maia seems less sure, but then she yells at and tries to kick and hit everybody these days. I hope this is a symptom of the terrible twos that will pass…(See cute but unrelated photo above).

Today we looked at some schools for Maia, and maybe once she has some structure in her little life and some children her own age to play with she’ll mellow out a bit. One was a Singapore-based kindergarten that was all Asian children but the instruction is in sort-of English; the other is the pre-school of the British International School, fancier and more expensive but more international, and with more play space. One deciding factor will be location to our new house and to Marco’s job.

Marco has already written about our new house (but in Italian); I will write more about it once we get settled in! But in a nutshell: it’s big (3 stories), in a quiet compound on the river, there is a large and pretty swimming pool, a gym and a restaurant. It’s near a bustling street full of shops and markets. At the moment it’s about a 20 minute drive to the downtown district where Marco works, but it’s close to the site of a bridge that, once finished, will cut the commute time in half. One of our neighbors will be the former PM of Vietnam! As well as other expats, I suppose…

In a couple of weeks we’re off on vacation, and will have plenty to write about then! Baci, T.