Christmas Came Early

My sister left for home on Sunday.
I think she must be a cat because apparently I killed her several times. (haha) I'm so used to walking everywhere, and at a good pace, that we wiped her out the first day.

To be fair, she arrived at 9am, and the best way to conquer jet lag is to stay up until bedtime in your new timezone on that first day. We started by walking off to rent bicycles.
We stopped for Vietnamese iced coffee on the way.

We took her to Ancient Town Hoi An for "bucket drinks" - one of my favorites. It's a large cocktail in a bucket!

The next day was heavy downpour all day and we stayed in. Good thing, too. She had blisters on her feet.

The next day was rainy too, but not so heavy, and there were occasional breaks in the rain, so we actually walked out to get coffee. I guess, cabin fever?

Even the lotus pond here is flooded!

The next day was drippy but okay, so we took a cab across town so she could order tailored clothes from my lady (Hoi An is tailoring capital of the world), and then we walked a ways to do some Christmas shopping. Stopped for coconut coffee.

We decided that we would go to Marble Mountain the following day, rain or shine. It was a bit drippy in the morning when we went, but the rain only began in earnest after we got in the car to head home.

Marble Mountain has Marble stores where you can watch the sculptors, and the biggest mountain has shrines and pagodas both on top and within the mountain itself. It's pretty cool. 

After Marble Mountain, I signed us up for a cooking class the following day. THAT was awesome. We made 4 delicious dishes, and the chef took pictures and videos so we can both repeat it later. He even told my sister some changes she can make to be able to do it in the States!

For her final day in Vietnam, I had booked us a room - a studio apartment really - at the place Brett and I had lived in Da Nang. Her flight left at 10am the next morning, so we wanted as short a drive as possible. 

It was Saturday night, so after hot stone massages, we went off to watch the Dragon Bridge show. Even though it rained, the dragon did his fire-breathing act... And then Vietnam won the soccer tournament they were in. It was a HUGE deal! 

Huge.
We couldn't get a ride, so ended up walking back to the room. My poor sister. 
I kept killing her by walking.

I hope she slept on the plane. She told me she slept for 15 hours after she got home!

Now you know why I've been so quiet lately. I'll get back into routine soon! I hope you all enjoy whatever holiday plans you have.

The More Things Change, the More They Stay The Same.

First of all, Chinese do holidays differently (big surprise). For some holidays, schools take off the Monday. Or Tuesday. Or both, but they will make up the missed day - or at least one of the missed days - on the previous Saturday. Why even take the Monday, am I right?

But other holidays are a huge break. We are winding down National Day holiday, which is October 1st, but the whole country takes off the 1st to 7th. We stayed in Beijing last year, and even the grocery store was closed for 3 days.



This year, we were invited to accompany friends to Qingdao on the Yellow Sea coast. Nice! 

We walked the shore the night we arrived.

(Also, home to Tsingtao beer, the Budweiser of China. Double Nice!)

Tsingtao brewery. Not very Chinese-looking? Germans started the brewery in 1903!

Turns out, there was a bit of an agenda. Yes, vacation at the coast, but our friends run a school in Beijing, and a former student's family had moved down to the area, and the mother is trying to get this school to open a branch down there. Brett would be a prime candidate to manage that location while our friend oversees operations from Beijing.

Buying crabs in Jimo

So we enjoyed the beach and the beer, lots of seafood, and a FANTASTIC hotel, then shmoozed with this woman of influence and looked at the potential site for the new school. 

In short, we may be moving within the year. That's as much as I can wrap my head around at this point. There are so many details to be worked out, and I've worked with this school through potential franchise situations before - witnessing them fall flat for various reasons. 

8 hrs by car, but a bullet train would  be 4-ish.

IF it actually even happens, the timeline could be anything, but I have an agreement to continue what I'm doing into April of 2019, so for a while my time would be split between the 2 locations. Fortunately, there's a bullet train between the two cities. I could get very familiar with travel by the Chinese method!

Or it could be nothing. 
This could all be pie in the sky.
I have let it go. It only concerns me insofar as my beloved husband may want to talk things out in advance. 

For my part? Life is the same.

It was a nice vacation, though. Check it out!

Dinner at Tsingtao Beer Garden, the first night.

The following day, Brett and I split from the pack and their kids.

I got to feel the sand between my toes once again. >sigh<

Nothing better than the sound of the waves.

A sculpture of getting a tattoo!

The goods sold by the "board"walk are different here.

If we move, it would be to here... in the outskirts, a "growing" area.