Weekend Mashup

Our weekend started a little early this week as we found out late Thursday night that our school "gifted" all staff and students a half-day on Friday in honor of Thanksgiving.  We celebrated the extra addition to our freedom by doing what any good educator would do -- we took a fat nap!  This seemed to set the tone for our entire weekend as we took advantage of having nothing on our schedule and lazed our way through the next 48 hours.

We had heard rumors that a local coffee shop was actually selling slices of pumpkin pie with REAL whipped cream.  So, Saturday we loaded up on our hog and set off in search of our slice of Thanksgiving.  All of our hopes and Thanksgiving dreams were crushed when we found that the pumpkin pie had been a 1 day special.  Instead, we ended up indulging in another traditional Thanksgiving treat -- a banana muffin.  While it was no slice-of-heaven-on-a-plate, we did enjoy the muffin as we walked around the city, taking in the sites.  As we wandered, we did stumble upon something that made up for the lack of Thanksgiving in Saigon.  A road of Christmas delight.  Yes, here in Saigon, a Buddhist nation, we managed to find a road where many shops were selling decorations for the Christmas season.  After some serious discussion which must have lasted 5 seconds, we picked out our mini, pre-decorated, pre-strung-with-lights and tinsel, fake Christmas Tree.  $5 later, we were riding down the road with Heidi balancing the tree, in all it's glory, on her lap.  How she managed to do that and still throw out the hand turn signals, we may never know.  To fully culminate our venture into the holiday season, we watched Love Actually and ate a traditional holiday meal of Thom Yam Curry!

Adam wondering if they at least had some whipped cream left over.

Our $5 tree.  Adam thinks that the components most likely did not pass inspection to be shipped to the states.

Love Actually is all around.

 This morning, we ventured out into South Saigon to participate in the Terry Fox 5k Race to raise money for cancer research.  This is the ONLY organized road race that occurs in HCMC so the turn out was large.  There were over 10,000 participants who came out to "Outrun Cancer."  Of those 10,000 participants, approximately 100 actually ran.  All others walked, biked, or Rollerbladed.  And, in the spirit that is Vietnam, a few motorbikes found their way onto the course, as well.  Man, did we feel fast as we passed people up and crossed the finish line (even before most of the bikers!)  And, even though we only ran 3.1 miles, you bet we rewarded ourselves with BLT's and french fries at 9:00 am.  Terry would have been proud!

Waiting for the run to start.  It was so hot that we had sweated through before the event even began.

Part of our group saying, "Don't mess, cancer!"

To run with us you MUST have some flashy shoes!