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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.
This coming weekend, we’ll be flying from Vietnam to Bali, Indonesia with the kids. Our school has a week-long October break, and since this is our only break during the school year where it’s not the rainy season in Bali, I decided to finally use up my Singapore Airlines miles and get one of the adult tickets for free.
Getting There
This will be our most ambitious trip so far within Southeast Asia. Usually I choose destinations that only take one flight to get to, but for Bali, it takes two flights. Since we are traveling on Singapore Airlines, we’ll fly from Ho Chi Minh City to Changi International Airport in Singapore, a 2-hour flight, and then from Singapore to Denpasar, Bali which is a 2.5-hour flight. You could also fly via Jakarta, Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur.
We have had a lot of sickness in our house this month! Arianne had two bouts of fever up to 104.6 degrees Fahrenheit and an ear infection. While I was in the hospital getting surgery for two abdominal hernias, she went to the Emergency Room at Family Medical to get her fever down, as the normal fever routines weren’t working. Thankfully, after a strict regimen of Nurofen and Acetaminophin, her fever went down. I was a very worried Mama, stuck in my hospital bed, barely able to even move enough to talk on the phone.
Traveling to India or Pakistan? Don’t let loss of sleep, dirty sheets or sunburns ruin your trip. Know what to pack for you trip to the subcontinent.
Things to Help You Sleep
If you’ll be staying in cities or spending time traveling on public transport you’ll probably want to bring things to help you sleep. If you are the type of person who can sleep through an hurricane, skip to the next section. Otherwise you’ll want to pack good quality earplugs, and eye mask and some sleeping pills. I’m a light sleeper, so when traveling in the subcontinent I usually need all three of those just to get a few hours of sleep! Street din during both day and night, the chorus of morning throat-clearing, and loud music played through crackling speakers during night bus rides should be expected.
I just returned home after getting laparoscopic hernia repair surgery for an abdominal hernia at FV Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.
What happened?
About 10 days ago, I had a nasty bout of food poisoning. A few days later, I noticed a strange, tender lump in my stomach, directly above the belly button. It stuck out from my stomach, but I could push it in and move it around a little bit. When it got enlarged, I needed to lie down to prevent getting dizzy.
After doing a bit of searching for “lump in stomach after pregnancy,” I guessed that what I had was an irreducible hernia. I went first to see my OB-GYN at Hanh Phuc Hospital, and he immediately thought it was a hernia. He explained that the hernia would have come about during the pregnancy and was likely agitated by the pressure on my abdomen during the food poisoning. He referred me to FV Hospital in District 7 where I made an appointment with Dr. Thai in General Surgery.
In June 2014, my sister and I did a 2 day/1 night Ha Long Bay Cruise with a baby and a 3-year-old. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to truly enjoy this experience with the kids, but it was amazing and my 3-year-old loved it too.
Family-Friendly Cruise Lines in Ha Long Bay
I decided to book in the luxury range as there have been safety concerns about some of the cheapie boats operating in Ha Long Bay. Also, since I knew I’d just be hanging out on the boat with the kids the whole time, I wanted a larger room with a nice view. I narrowed it down to these four different options and ultimately decided on the Paloma with a Family Suite as my cousin had cruised with Paloma and recommended them.
Paradise Luxury – $420 – 23m terrace suite with private terrace
Indochina Sails – $372 – 13m Superior room with two twin beds
Paloma – Superior – $238 – 15m room with two twin beds
Paloma – Family Suite – $350, private terrace 25m
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