Memorial Day

Yesterday was Memorial Day.  We have teams out in the field so I went into work in the moring, but pretty much took the rest of the day off.  If it weren't for all of the US Embassy personnel in our apartment complex, I would probably have just gone into work and liesurely accomplished a lot of the things that have been on the back-burner for a while. Unfortunately, any time there is a US-only holiday and I am at work, invevitably there will be at least one person from the embassy asking Diep where I am. Then I catch hell because I wasn't at home during the holiday.  This happens a lot when the embassy is closed for a Vietnamese holiday.  Diep seems to think I should get Vietnamese holidays off, which I don't.

Anyway, our day was pretty full.  Diep and I hit the tennis ball around before Megan went to school and then I took off for the office to see what was going on for the day.  When I got back, we took off for the Metro (which is similar to COSCO) and requires a membership card.  Diep lost her card in HCMC and needed some support to convince the management to issue her a new card.  Good news is that she got a new card, bad news is that it was hotter than hell when we rode the 30 minutes to and from the store on the motorbike.  After the store, we went to eat at Thai Express (fast food Thai restaurant in the center of town) and then stopped off at a local spa for a foot massage.

Megan was home from school shortly after we got back.  If you are feeling sorry for Megan because she didn't get the day off, don't. She will be off for the summer in no time - last day on 11 June - and she gets plenty of breaks anyway.

Megan and two of her friends were invited to make a few episodes of English-speaking lessons for a local television company this last Sunday.  All in all, it seemed to be pretty educational and fun for her.  Diep was extremely concerned that the company was using her talents without pay;  I personally figure it is some experience she gains and lets her get a feel for whether she would ever want to do something like that for real.

Not much time left before I get really busy.  In less than three weeks I go to Hawaii for some computer training and shortly after that I come back to the States on home leave.  I have a feeling it is all going to be a blur.

Today ended with an electrical storm to the south of Hanoi. I captured a little on my flip video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsDBBb2V4j8&feature=player_embedded