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MBA Graduation: Reflection, Gratitude, and Adventure
What to do when you graduate from your MBA in the middle of winter and want to celebrate? Take an adventure trip to Lapland!
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Welcome
Thanks for visiting Expat Heather! I’m an international educator, writer, and expat mom currently living in South Korea. On this site you’ll find things about living abroad, teaching in international schools, travel, hiking, and expat life.
Today marks the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the victory of the North Vietnamese army. The holiday is also called Victory Day or Liberty Day, however some Vietnamese refer to it as Black April and consider it a day of mourning.
The 40-year celebration in Ho Chi Minh City was open only to those invited, but I was able to get downtown yesterday to check out the preparations. A large outdoor arena was set up in front of Reunification Palace. All the bleachers were painted baby blue, and large floats replicating tanks, trains, and garish red and yellow flowers were ready for the morning’s parade. More than 100 police offers and army personnel patrolled the area, so sadly I wasn’t able to actually get into the bleacher area which was barricaded from the public. Locals, who usually enjoy the green space between Alexandre de Rhodes and Han Thuyen, sat on the curb against a backdrop of portable chain link barriers.
This is our air purifier’s pre-filter after approximately 10 months of use in Ho Chi Minh City. When we installed it, the inside boxes were bright white just like the styrofoam.
The first year we lived in Vietnam, we did not have an air purifier. I had almost constant sinus infections, and Gabriel developed a persistent cough and chest congestion. Considering the amount of dust pollution from construction in District 2 and overall bad air quality in Ho Chi Minh City, I decided that we needed to do something about the air quality in our house. Part of the solution included moving to a house with lower ceilings and less space, and the other part was buying high-quality air purifiers.
One of my favorite things to do during Tet is to visit the Spring Flower Festival at Tao Dan Park in central Ho Chi Minh City. This is the third year we’ve stayed in town during Tet. I actually really like it because the weather is cool, the city is less busy, and the new year decorations make the town festive.
It cost 20,000 VND (US $1) per adult to enter the park for the flower festival; the kids (ages 4 and 1) got in free. Inside there are lots of different displays set up with rock carvings, wood carvings, bonsai tree art, and other floral arrangements. Within each section, a few of the pieces are marked with ribbons, and all pieces are marked with names, so it seems to be a contest. It reminded me a lot of the New England county fairs where people enter different produce and crafts for judging.
We did as the locals do: dressed up and took pictures with the flowers. Enjoy!
We had a lot of fun preparing for and celebrating Arianne’s first birthday! Because Arianne’s birthday falls during the Tet holidays, I decided just to have a small, simple party at the house. Gabriel gave me a long list of HIS friends that he wanted to invite, but I showed him on Facebook that those friends were all on vacation! If anyone is in town who wants to help us finish off that cake, let me know.
Unlike Gabriel, who smashed his cake into my face on his first birthday, Arianne was ALL about the cake. She ate two small pieces; she also tore right into the presents as quickly as she could.
Today our school celebrated the lunar new year. As this is our third Tet in Vietnam, it’s become a fun tradition for Gabriel to dress up in traditional Vietnamese clothes. He outgrew his bright blue ao dai that he had for his first Tet, so I got him a new one in dark blue silk with gold and a cute little hat for 120,000 VND ($6) at Ben Thanh Market.
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