Vietnam U23

This week the city has been talking about soccer! The Vietnam team has been in China playing for the Asian Football Confederation U23 competition. On Tuesday the team won the semi-finals (beating Qatar) and advanced to the final game against Uzbekistan. All week the country has been excitedly preparing for Saturday's match.

We made reservation at a favourite Pub with large viewing screens. We joined thousands of others wearing Vietnam flag t-shirts to cheer on the team. It was a disappointing loss in the last 2 minutes of play in the second overtime. But, even still, people were still smiling and chatting at cafes for hours after.

Daily Life

This week Lisa was looking for a printing company to produce some small books for a study group. She found one a short distance from home. It is a small operation where two competent young women quickly put together various projects for the University students across the street. It was a pleasant outing and very inexpensive -- just 75 cents for a 70 page bound booklet!

Another farewell in Waterloo

After Christmas and New Year's Day in Nova Scotia, we traveled with Max to Waterloo, Ontario to spend a few days visiting and settling him back on campus. This was a special time for us to meet Max's friends again, to reacquaint ourselves with the campus, and to prepare for our return to Vietnam.

Our time was filled with meeting up with old friends and new friends and gathering information. Simon has received offers of admission from University of Waterloo and University of Guelph. We took advantage of our proximity to visit both schools, to talk to people in each program, and to walk the campuses.

But once again it was a tearful good-bye. As always our parting is bittersweet. We are so very proud of Max who is thriving academically. socially. and spiritually but we daily miss being in his physical presence. We are grateful for the wonders of technology which make our 14,000 km feel not so far apart. 

Christmas Festivities

This year we, once again, traveled to Nova Scotia to celebrate Christmas with our families. It was a cool but green couple of weeks. We ate lots of great food, played lots of cribbage, and laughed lots.

Max, Simon and Grandad worked in the woodshop creating several beautiful items. They also ventured to the cabin for a quick check-up. We all went to the new Star Wars VIII movie for Simon's 18th birthday. Of course we drove to Truro for a visit with friends and did some shopping along the way. And we ended our trip with a fun New Year celebration playing games.