"Make it work."

This week has been extremely busy for me at school. It feels great to be teaching so many classes and tomorrow we are participating in an international writing competition.

I have been in Ho Chi Minh for almost 3 months now and honestly, parts of this city and the culture are driving me crazy and can be very frustrating. There are so many emotional ups and downs to living abroad - but I remember a friend telling me before I left the US that my attitude about this experience will be 90% of my happiness and success here.

I've been telling myself, Tim Gunn-style... "Make it work," over and over this week. It helps! I can make this experience whatever I want it to be. AND there is plenty for me to love in this city.  :)

Thank you to everyone who has sent me postcards! I cannot even tell you how wonderful it is to see a security guard walk through the library doors holding mail with my name on it.

The library checkout counter is lookin' good!

Last weekend I finally got around to having pictures printed and the students in the library for study hall last period today helped me put them up...

I love it! It was a lot of fun to do this with the kids - they really liked seeing the pictures and guessing where some of them were taken. It was nice to be involved in a fun activity with them and get to know each of these kids a bit better.

One of the 7th graders, Tom, put my picture of the roasted banana in tapioca sauce on the inside of the counter, near my computer. We joked that now I will always be hungry when I am at my desk!

I was telling them how much I like this dessert but have not been able to find it since. I've even gone out a few times just driving around the touristy areas in the city, looking for one of the food carts selling this! Phuong wrote down the name of it, che chua, in Vietnamese for me and I tried to find it in the Ben Thanh Market but was told they would have it tomorrow, not today - DOH!