It’s funny how quickly we adapt to changes. I feel so settled into this new life already. Sure, there are many areas to still sort out (like my home art studio) but in so many ways it all feels normal now. I’m deeply missing my friends from Istanbul and my family and friends back home but I'm glad to have found some fabulous people here in Saigon who are amazing additions to my expat family. 
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Kim is out of quarantine. Penny is with us. We are in our new apartment. I feel that I can finally say that the moving to Vietnam mid-pandemic is over. I’m so happy! The last few days I have felt an overwhelming sense of joy and contentment. We have had so many months of uncertainty and worry, with plans A through Z and then some, it is surreal to finally be on the other side of it all. And now, now we can go on with all the fabulous things that come with arriving in a new country. Setting up house, exploring all the areas, trying all the new foods, finding adventures in the every day, and enjoying the sense of newness. That is exactly what I am trying to do now, not rush through this special stage of aw and new. Like our first Banh Mi (Vietnamese sandwich) or exploring our neighborhood or getting to know new fabulous people. 

School has been going wonderfully. It’s a rush to get the year started and an adjustment to these new grade levels. I am teaching 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade which is a shift from Middle and High School that I’ve taught for the last few years. But I’m not a newbie when it comes to this age range either. I’m slowly rearranging my room and starting to get it set up for proper student agency. I’m so use to just focusing on having the right resources but now I feel that I can actually take the time to make my room a beautiful and inspiring place. No hurry though, I feel I’ll be here for awhile. Especially with the open-access COLOR photocopiers/printers ; ) This was the first week collaborative artwork that I organized with my fellow art teacher (grades 1-2), Nick. Each student drew themselves or something that represents them. 

We had two more COVID tests, one and two weeks after our release. The last one was the absolute worst. The tester made me gag 3-4 times as he stuck the swab continuously down my throat. He was so rough with the nose swab that, for the first time in 8 tests, it continued to hurt for awhile afterward. I’m SO glad to be done with all of that. 

On Monday I signed the lease to our new beautiful apartment. I absolutely love it! My top three priorities were a place close to school, that allows Penny, and is within our budget. This fits all of those while being nearly across the street from school. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to walk to school for the past five years and I didn’t want to have to deal with a commute. Additionally we were looking for at least two bedrooms and we got three! One master, one guest bedroom, and one art studio room. We wanted a huge kitchen for Kim with a nice stove and oven. This kitchen is so big and lovely, it has 3 gas burners and 2 electric ones, plus the owner bought us the biggest toaster oven I have ever seen! It also needed to have LOTS of natural light which is abundant in this apartment. It has the master bedroom on the backside of the building so it is nice and quiet and faces the sunrise where the rest of the rooms have glorious huge windows overflowing with light. Plus one whole wall in the living room is just a big glass sliding door. We were also hoping for wood flooring, check, and nice lighting, check check. There is also a perfect entry area with built in storage which I realized was important to me after looking at many apartments that opened directly into the living area. The place is fully furnished with a modern look (most had hideous furniture that we would have had to keep). In addition, we have a bathtub, two balconies, stunning molding throughout the whole place, a pool, AND the owner bought us a dryer! I seriously could not ask for anything more, we are so in love with this place! 

Kim is so beyond happy to be out of quarantine. I took the day off from school to get her properly settled. It was such a joyous reunion!! To finally be here, all together, I just don’t have words. We spent the day walking around the neighborhood, buying pillows, trying some different foods, and wandering for hours around various grocery stores. 

Penny has been enjoying our new place and neighborhood. She is pretty hot so we take her for a walk early early in the morning and later in the evening when the sun goes down. I’m happy to be in a quiet area where she can wonder off-leash without any problems. We've spent a chunk of change at the vet already for a gunky eye and getting her regular meds (heartworm, flea, tick, etc). We decided to become "members" at the vet which means for a fee we get unlimited consults for the year - I'm certain we will get our moneys worth. We did get caught in our first monsoon the other day. Penny was very unimpressed. 

Over the weekend we ventured out of our area, District 7, for the first time. Friday night we went to a kitchen store about 15 minutes away and then walked around. We found a bustling street lined with food and drink stalls, produce sellers spilling out into the road, fish and meat sellers cutting up their goods (including plump still-hopping frogs), and so much more. It was rush hour which means there were motorbikes coming from every direction like a swarm of bees. It was insane and a bit much right off the bat. I was happy to return to our quiet, clean, open area of Phu My Hung. 

Saturday we went off to another area, District 2, which had a fun hipster vibe to it. We searched a few boutique house-goods stores for the perfect dishes. I’m hoping to take advantage of this opportunity we have to set up a home completely from scratch by being very conscientious of what we buy for it. I intend to curate our home carefully and make it a beautiful, inspiring, and lovely place. Which means we are on the hunt for beautiful, inspiring, and lovely things. It was fun meandering around and looking through the shops. We bought some dishes that I’m happy with but I might just have a hand at making my own as well. Later on, we stumbled on the American style diner and had our full of milkshakes and burgers. Kim was super excited to get a stack of pancakes (something she’s been craving for weeks). 

One of the fabulous things about Saigon is that you can get anything delivered. And I mean ANYTHING. It has become part of the culture here and is so convenient. We just got a beautiful new bed set delivered yesterday. Kim also picked up a big selection of plants for me and a new watercolor. I’m excited to start nesting and making this our ideal home. 

As I mentioned in the last update, it was a struggle to do everything without Kim. But she managed to find a way to order me flowers and get them delivered to school even before she was out of quarantine. 

Saw a rainbow while walking Penny and video chatting with Kim (while she was still in quarantine)

Went plant shopping and found this cutie straight out of a Dr. Seuss book

Breakfast time has been yogurt with mangos served in our drink glasses because we have not yet gotten any bowls. Plus a new notebook and pen for my morning pages. 

Bubble tea and pedicures is my new weekly ritual. 

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was a great leader in Turkey who founded the country out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire. He is deeply revered by all Turkish citizens. His statue and portrait are seen in restaurants and homes all throughout the country. At our school we have a photo of him in every single classroom. On November 10th the entire country stands still for one minute (9:05 am) to commemorate his passing. At school we had a large gathering that involved a speech, a wreath laying, and the minute of silent. Check out this short clip to see traffic stand still even on the bridges and highways. ​

Kim trying some street mussles

Ferry rides are my favorite

There is a "Fruit Garden" just down the street from us where anyone can go and pick fresh fruit for free, right now it's pomegranate season.

Our new weekend routine of going for a late Turkish breakfast every Sunday

I've been rolling with my kombucha brew this year and have expanded to Jun (made with just green tea and honey) as well as hibiscus tea kombucha. So tasty! 

This is Phoebe. She is a cat that hangs out in our apartment compound because she used to belong to a teacher that lived here but she got left behind. And then another teacher adopted her and left her behind again. So sometimes we let her come cuddle in our apartment. 

Until next time my friends 
xoxo

​September has been a hot month here in Yangon. It is still supposed to be rainy season but there was not a lot of rain. Luckily there was usually a good amount of cloud cover making it a good month for exploring and being out. Lots of gatherings filled our calendars this month making it a great time for friends with an equally great time spent on our own. A bout of sickness kept us home over one long weekend, Kim has been cooking away at work, and there were birthday festivities. September was a great month with a lot of promise and happy times. Let's start with a few more pictures from around the neighborhood. 

Last month I briefly mentioned Fahrenheit where Kim was hired in March of this year to run the kitchen of what would be a Mexican-Asian restaurant. Not being a Mexican or Asian chef, Kim has certainly met the challenge by creating truly unique dishes that highlight both cuisines. It has not been easy but it has certainly been worth it as Fahrenheit was recently moved to TripAdvisors #2 restaurant in Yangon.
Since our return, Kim has been working on developing a new menu to delight the taste buds of the hungry crowd that has already made it through the original menu multiple times. Some of my favorite dishes are the Potato Curry Tusquitos, Pumpkin and Tofu Enchiladas, Pad Thai Chimichanga, Chili Infused Hot Fudge Sunday (with homemade ice cream) and of course the Creamy Tequilla Margarita Pie. Lucky me, I got to be the first taster for all of this deliciousness. I thought you all might like to see some picture of this awesome place. 

I took my students on my first Field Trip in Yangon this month and the experience was so much more than I could have ever imagined. I had a simple intent, take the students on the train to practice their photography skills. As we have just finished our photography basics unit, learning the ins and outs of our cameras, and the students were itching to try their skills in real life situations. Pair that with not having access to our usual computer lab classroom (because of standardized testing) and you have the perfect opportunity for a one day field trip. But what started as a simple field trip turned into a perspective changing experience.  Read all about it HERE

​To celebrate his birthday Mark, a co-worker of mine, held his annual Kegs and Kickball event. I was hesitant to join because I am not a big kickball fan but I thought it might be fun and it was a BLAST! About 30 people met up at the American Club field on Saturday and went through 3 kegs of beer while attempting to play kickball. There were also rules that involved having a cup of beer in your hand at all times even when you are kicking, and finishing your beer before second base and before home base. There was pizza, a speedo, some major kickball competition, LOTS of beer, and a fantastic time had by all! So glad I have such a fun community of people to be around.  

​It was a month full of birthdays in our friend Steven’s house. Firstly his little guy, Keean, turned 3 years old! I joined them in the morning for a trip to the park where we spent the majority of the time pushing a swing back and forth to each other. It makes my heart so happy to have this little man in my life. As someone who has always had children around it feels like having a piece of my family here in Yangon.

​While we were wandering around our neighborhood the other day we stumbled upon an aquarium store. I use the word store very lightly because really this was a space on the side of the road with a chicken wire type wall and dirt floors. I had noticed recently that the shops and houses will often have giant aquariums in them, even the ones that seem to be not so well off. These aquariums always have GIANT fish in them! It’s crazy! So we meandered past a hungry looking cat into the store. It had huge aquariums stacked on top of each other from the ground up. Scattered along the aisle were liquor bottles of all sorts filled with betta fish. In the large aquariums there were all different kinds of fish. Towards the back of the store was a group of people who were working on cutting glass that would be the side to a new aquarium. It was a strange, strange place true to Myanmar. 

​Eating unknown snacks off the street is one of our favorite things to do. This month we found a few very interesting things to try. It started with the deep fried frogs at one of our local restaurants. Then when we were adventuring around the other day we discovered some interesting fruits. I also got Kim to try an “Everything Salad” which is a mix of all different noodles, sauces, and other things. Have a look at some of the videos. 

I also tried sugar cane drink for the first time and it was delicious! The sugar cane is peeled then squished through a grinder resulting in a sweet, syrup-y drink. 

I have been filled with creativity this month! I have been working on a body of work that I started in the spring and have made significant progress this month. The process involves using my travel photographs as a base and digitally altering them to create visual errors, or glitches, by corrupting ​the data in the photograph. I’m not quite ready to share them yet but I’ll show you this one:

​During school time my fellow art teacher and I have begun using our collective prep time to work on art journaling. It has been fantastic to have a scheduled time in the week to get messy and create. It brings me back to my core interest in the arts and gives me the freedom to play and experiment. It has been a great reminder of why I am an art teacher and how much I love making art! Here are some progress pictures of one of the journal pages based off the idea of Positive/Negative Self. Also a snap shot of my morning bliss station

There were morning Trishaw rides

Scrumptious BBQ was had

My school held a college fair with about 20 colleges from around the world and one of the was Roger Williams University where my little sis just started law school. Funny that. 

We found a movie store that has english movies and TV shows for only $1 a disk

Some funny things we saw this month, a "Cold & Drinking" restaurant sign, sushi sold out of the back of a truck, this hilarious sign.

A few shots for my "From Where I Stand" photo project.

I'll leave you with these two tasty dishes. The one on the left is my absolute favorite Myanmar dish: Tofu Noway. It is some sort of hot, melted tofu over noodles. The one on the right is the chicken soup that Kim made for me when I was sick in bed for our three day weekend. 

There are a few different options for lunch by my school, although I often bring my lunch packed by Kim, there are some days that it is nice to get out of the building and wander down the dirt streets during lunch break. All of the street restaurants have arrays of Myanmar dishes that usually include various types of meats in seasoned oil/sauce, a few different stir fried veggies, hard boiled eggs, and other traditional foods.

The other week I was on my way to one of the street stalls that I frequent when a bright yellow sign caught my eye. "Alfredo Pizza" it said with a little character of a man throwing a pizza dough into the air. Although I hadn't heard anyone at school talk about this hole-in-the-wall street pizza place, I was intrigued and thought I would give it a try. 

As I approached I noticed a list of pizza options: cheese, sausage (aka hot dogs), pineapple, just to name a few. I thought I would play it safe and go for the cheese. I paid my 2500 kyat ($2.50 usd) and was told that the pizza would be 10 minutes but they would deliver it to me. I returned to my classroom and shortly after there was a knock on the door from one of the school staff with a mini-pizza box in hand. 

The pizza was surprisingly tasty for a street stall in Myanmar. Good dough, okay sauce, and great cheese. Mainly it was nice to have a lunch option that was not rice, noodles, or oil. Since getting my first pizza I have ordered it about once a week. It always comes promptly to my classroom door and one time I even got a sheet of stickers to boot!