last day.

today is was our first last day.

we have finished our week of working here at the orphanage.

i am so attached and most definitely heartbroken to have to leave.

i wish i could adequately describe what this short week's experience has meant to me, but i can't.

maybe after i have a little bit of time to sort through my thoughts and make sure that i have the images of these little darlings burned permanently in my head, i can make a second attempt.

tomorrow we are going to see the old war tunnels.

being the peace-loving, war-hating, hate-hating person that i have always been, and coupled with the vietnam-loving person that i now am, i am not at all excited.

on monday we leave for DaNang where we will have our second beginning.

i am very much excited.

there is no peanut butter in vietnam.

if you would like to send me some, i would be overjoyed.

however, i haven't a clue as to how you would do so.

last night, as i was sleeping, i was sure that i heard four gun shots in a row.

i was positive there was as some dangerous and also very exciting happening.

unfortunately, it was simply the circuits breaking due to an overflow of energy.

evidently the vietnamese are very actively using technology at 4:30am.

i, personally, enjoy actively sleeping at that point in the AM, but each to their own.

(the battery on the computer is about to die! i'm typing quick!)

i made a new friend today named Nam.

he's a gorgeous little boy who wouldn't let me even touch him before this afternoon, but now we're getting along quite well. 

he even let me sing to him, and if you've ever heard my voice, you know that's saying a lot.

rainy day.

for the record, i have been attempting to steal a slow internet connection from some lady named Irene12 for awhile now, and I JUST DID.

thank you irene.

however, the computer is about to die.

so i'll make this short.

today is our third day working at the orphanage and i have fallen in love with two little boys: Ti-Na and Hung.

if you see me toting the both of them around with me once i return to the states, don't be surprised. 

i'm pretty sure they would both like good ol' southern california.

Hung is pretty gangster, and would definitely fit in with the long beach crowd.

he's about 7 and has an attitude.

Ti-Na is overwhelmingly joyful and i'm thinking he might be more partial to the beach.

i'm going to guess he's 4 years old.

we found oreos today.

needless to say, we have eaten a lot of them.

it's almost inappropriate.

(reminder for those who don't remember, oreos are vegan. do not get excited. i'm sticking with it)

also, i feel like i just went to five classes of hot yoga in a row.

the amount of sweat that has been produced by this team of ten is even more inappropriate than the amount of oreos we have consumed.

and i'm pretty sure you weren't as interested in the sweat as you were in the oreos.

my apologies.

it's been raining and i was informed that it is in fact monsoon season here in vietnam.

oh good.

we have arrived.

we are in ho chi minh city, also known as siagon, in beautiful vietnam.

after a very very long plane ride (i watched the first half of bride wars, the first twenty minutes of the wrestler and most of valkrie before i gave up and decided to sleep) we hopped into a big taxi, sweat more that we have ever sweat before, and saw the city.

here are a couple of highlights from our adventuring yesterday:

-one man at the market and i discovered we were both partial to obama, so we proceeded to give each other a thumbs-up for a solid two minutes.

-i met bin laden (KIDDING!), but that is how one vietnamese man decided to introduce himself...it was funny, i promise.

-i had some coca-cola light because, and i blame this on my mother, i can not go very long without a diet coke these days.

-i rode of the back of a moped, which will never happen again because i nearly died, three times.

-my team had traditional vietnamese pho for lunch, because i'm vegan i had rice.

-it rained. really hard. but it was still very hot.

-i had the best iced coffee i will ever have, and proceeded to eat the ice before anyone told me it might not have been the best idea.

-i watched my friend amanda get a pedicure in the park after the woman insisted her toes were simply terrible. now, amanda just could not have that, so now they are bright pink and beautiful.

while here, we are staying and working at an orphanage for disabled children.

we began this morning and i'm already exhausted.

but these kids are worth it a hundred times over.

it's go time.

ok.
here's the thing, team vietnam is leaving on a jet plane in about 12 hours.
correct. we are leaving at 1 o'clock in the morning.
we're ready.
...at least we think so.