Oh Baby!

Before you get too excited--no Robyn is not pregnant. But we are excited because we recently learned that Luke's sister-in-law is! This will be the first time either of us will have a niece or nephew, so it's something to look forward to. The baby is due in late April.

Soccer vs. Football

Luke joined the soccer (football) team of the International School here on campus. The team is made up mostly of Vietnamese, who apparently begin playing soccer as soon as they can walk. There is also one Hungarian who speaks the local language, English, and Vietnamese... But as Luke was getting yelled at in various languages, he couldn't really help. It didn't really matter, however, as they won the game 10-0. Luke learned that he is very slow and cannot run very far, but that he still enjoys the game!

All in a day's work

Luke teaches an English conversation class to freshmen--many of whom are speaking English for the first time. Recently, he had a class that required the students to list various objects made of particular materials. Desks, pencils, and doors are made of wood; windows, glasses, and jars are made of glass, etc. He wasn't quite prepared for the answer when he asked the question: "What is made out of leather?" More than one student quickly said, "Pigs!"

Being the judge

We have been asked several times to judge English speaking contests. They say we are "experts" simply because we speak English. Too bad many of those we are judging don't.

More vacation pictures

Our "Golden" Vacation

We had a week off from October 1-7 to celebrate a national holiday here.
We used this time to travel to the local metro area and get some much needed Mickey D's, and then on to a "quaint" village beyond. It took 9 1/2 smoke filled hours to reach our destination and we shared the "quaintness" with about 800,000 other people... The town was beautiful and well-preserved with cobblestone streets and wood and stone buildings. We also visited one of the largest gorges in the world near the end of our tour. Robyn almost didn't make it past the cliffhanger road (heights and all that), but we did make it down to the bottom of the gorge and back up and we're pleased to say that we're still married! We threw in the towel with ground transportation and flew back to the big city (we love non-smoking flights!!). We picked up a few much-wanted goodies and visited with some new good friends. Robyn even bought a flute before we made it home and we must say, there's no place like home.

Mid-Autumn Festival

September 25, we took part in the celebration known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, or Moon Festival. It's kind of like Thanksgiving, but no turkey. Rather than a stuffed bird, they stuff these cakes shaped like a full moon with different fillings. We sampled a couple of kinds--some a little more appetizing than others. The tradition dates back several centuries when some people hid messages of revolt in the cakes and passed them throughout the villages unnoticed by the Man. Hmm...old style fortune cookies??? Someone probably didn't get the message way back then and got a little more fiber in his diet than he'd planned.