Night Market Fun

​A fiend from the south came to visit us and we decided to go to the Night Market to get some souvenirs. I thought it would be fun to invite some of our friends from school to join us.

So we met at our apartment at 7 and we motorbiked to the Old Quarter. Our language tutor convinced us to drive and I'm so glad she did. There is nothing like driving around the city and experiencing everything the way the locals do :).

At the Old Quarter we walked around the lake and saw some of the touristy things. We met two guys who wanted to practice their English. Our friend, Matt, as the only guy in our group so the guys seemed to flock to him. It was really funny!

Matt was so much fun and a great sport as he was the only guy with 7 girls! 

After walking around the lake we headed to the Night Market to do some SHOPPING! As we were walking around and bartering we started sharing our testimonies and stories with each other. Our 3 friends from work are not believers but they listened to our stories. I really pray God softens their hearts to know Him. I love how God uses all of us at different times to do his work and share about Him.

This was probably one of the best night I have had. Just seeing God move is amazing and sharing stories is great! I learned so much about others and about God. It was such a blessing and a great start to our long 4 day weekend!

Our group eating Kem Caramen. *Ngan is taking the picture*

Birthday Abroad

​On Tuesday, April 19th I turned a quarter of a century old! I was a little anxious and nervous to celebrate my birthday abroad, but God really blessed me with great friends here!

I also drove with 3 people (including myself) on a motorbike! 

My birthday celebrations started on Friday. After school my roommate and I went with our coworker to our usual Pizza Company dinner. Then we went to meet up with our friends to get our hair washed. My friend Melody made a brownie for my birthday and we took it with us to the salon. At the salon we talked and got amazing head messages and devoured the brownie :). Here, you can go to a salon and get an hour long hair washing. Yes and it only costs $1.50! It's absolutely amazing!!! I think I have fallen in love and now no longer want to wash my own hair. I could just have someone else wash it for me. LOL. Just kidding, but it was really nice!

On Saturday, I finally went to the Ethnology museum. This is the museum that everyone talks about and you can walk in real houses from different tribes around the country. After the museum we went to Joma for lunch (probably one of my favorite cafes). Then my roommate and I went to a new mall to meet up with a friend from work and her husband. Basically we went to this mall to have Dairy Queen because it is one of the two places that we know to have DQ. After the mall we went to a worship night. This was an answered birthday wish :). God gave me the best present ever! Time in his presence. It was a great time of worship and then there was some awesome fellowship. What a great birthday present!

Sitting at breakfast at Saint Honores.  

On Sunday, my roommate and I had to take our motorbike to the shop because we had 2 flat tires the day before. But this gave us the opportunity to have breakfast at this amazing French bistro called Saint Honores.  After breakfast we went to church and then to lunch with the young adults. For lunch we went to Z Pizza and because we spent so much money (like $50 for 14 people) they gave us 3 free gifts (2 selfie sticks and a draw string backpack). Only in Asia :). After lunch a couple of the young adults went to play an escape game. Basically it's just like the breakout games in Lexington. However this was harder because the clues were in two languages. We didn't break out but it was a lot of fun! I love the people God has put in my life. They truly made this a great day. Then that night, Jen treated me to a movie (The Jungle Book) and ice cream at our local theater. It was another great day in my birthday celebrations!

Z Pizza with the amazing HIF Young Adults! 

Motorbiking it :)  

Our group and the beautiful BaVi mountains! 

On Monday, I joined my roommate and coworker along with 3 local friends, we went to an ancient village about an hour and a half away. We took motorbikes, which was actually a long time but it was so much fun! You get to see so much more when you are out in the open! Once we got to the ancient village we walked around and saw some really old building. It's really cool to see things that are older than America. :). After the ancient village we headed home and then met up with another friend for dinner at a place called Chops. Omg another good burger place. I had a chicken burger with avocado and Brie. O M G. Amazing! I can't wait to go back!!! LOL

Eating some Vietnamese food at the ancient village!  

Dinner group at Chops with my birthday dessert (another brownie!)  

On Tuesday, I went to school and was overwhelmed with all the love I felt from my coworkers. One of my coworkers even got me a card and had everyone sign it! It was so sweet! Then after school my roommate and I joined our friends at the Marriott for dinner! Another O M G moment! The French Grill at the Marriott has some delicious food. I finally got some French onion soup that was just amazing!!! And Jen and I split their signature burger. Then for dessert the chef made me a brownie! What?!?! I was totally spoiled and showered with love!

One of the many desserts I was given at the Marriott :).  

I loved having such a busy weekend filled with so much love and blessings. God has surrounded me with so many friends here. I can't imagine any other way to spend my birthday abroad.

Young adults! So thankful for this group of people. So glad God put them in my life and that I got to spend my 25th birthday week with them! 

Friendly, Talking Mice are Only in Fairytales

So today there was a mouse in our kitchen. You are probably freaking out just like my roommate was. However this was probably the 3rd time I've seen a mouse in our kitchen since moving here. I would just like to say that our kitchen is not dirty so I have no idea why mice decide to visit us :(. Mice in real life are nothing like the mice in Cinderella. Anyways I tried to corner this mouse but it unfortunately went under the stove. Grrrr. So we decided to put some sticky traps around our kitchen. Then went to see the new Jungle Book movie :).

When we came home I put my bag down and walked into the kitchen only to scream and turn around and run out. There was a ginormous (at least the biggest I've seen) mouse on the trap. I didn't even have to turn the light on to see it. I was freaking out and couldn't keep it to myself so my roommate came running in. She screamed too. We both don't like mice.

I decided to turn the light on to see this mouse. It was seriously the biggest mouse I've seen. And sadly there was blood everywhere. The mouse was trying to escape the sticky stuff. Another scream came out. I wasn't going to be able to take this mouse out of our kitchen. We needed to find someone else to take care of this for us.

My roommate has a way with our bảo vệ (security guards). So we decided to go down and tell him, in our best broken language, that there is a mouse in our kitchen please come help! Once we said mouse he understood and was quick to come up with us. He went in and got the mouse off the trap and disposed of it and then even cleaned (mopped) the blood off our floor. He definitely went above and beyond. LOL.

I am so thankful that our security guard came to our rescue. Sometimes it good to be the only foreign girls in the building and it helps when your roommate is liked by the bảo vệ ;).

Current score: 

Allie&Jen 4         Mice 1