For obvious security reasons, I didn't post that Diep and I were headed to the United States for a week, leaving Megan in Hanoi with her 22 year old cousin. I gave Megan some numbers to call in case she ran into any trouble, but I figured everything would be okay. Megan has lived overseas most of her life and she is fairly independent. I believe the separation was harder on Megan's mother than it was on her. Fortunately for us, we were able to keep in touch via Skype for the entire time we were gone.
Diep got a day to recharge after we got back and now she and Megan are off again. This time to Saigon. Diep has tacked on another trip to Malaysia because she is escorting her cousin's mother there to see her new grandchild. Megan opted out and will just stay in Saigon the whole week.
Autumn break at Megan's international school lasts a week. The last day of school before the break was United Nations Day. The kids celebrated with a flag ceremony and international food from representative nations. For each country, the youngest and oldest student carries their respective flags. Some countries are not represented from the student body, so the school selected the kids who have been going to UNIS the longest to bear the flags for those nations. Since Megan has been going to the school for ten years now, she was asked to bear the Chilean flag. I was okay with that because the flag much resembles the state flag of Texas. I will post a picture or two after I get them from Diep's camera.
So I am alone in Hanoi once again. After a week of taking Diep everywhere she wanted to go, I can use the break. Unfortunately, I am having a hard time getting back into this time zone. I found myself wide awake at 0300hrs this morning. Rather than fight myself back to sleep, I just got up. Hopefully, things will return to normal tomorrow night.
I also found that I gained five pounds last week. I guess I should be grateful it wasn't more, but with Diep watching everything that I put into my mouth, with that condescending look every time she didn't approve, I had hoped I could maintain rather than gain. That's okay, I have all week to work it off with no distractions.
