Two days before Julie arrives....

Sa bai dee!! I want to start by assuring everyone who reads this (how many people that is I'm not sure!) that I am doing fine - when I wrote my last post I was feeling particularly down about life in Laos. However I feel like the cloud has lifted and that everything - work, friendships, adapting - is going much better. I have a lot of things to look forward to in the next two months - Julie arrives in two days (yay!!!! And we have a long weekend this weekend! So we are off to Vang Vieng :-)), Jane arrives in three weeks, and I am on holidays at the start of April (including a week in Australia - I am so excited!!)
Before I tell you about the last two weeks, I'll tell you two unusual places you can see me (other than Facebook or on this blog..):
1) http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/02/20/1203467158750.html - I had a rather amusing experience while taking sleeping pills a few years ago. The sleeping pill (Stilnox) is getting some bad press in Australia at the moment, so I thought I'd share my story with the SMH...and then they decided to share it with everyone.
2) http://www.youtube.com/susiebluec - During the last month, I've spent some of my spare time putting together a video for my church in Sydney to let them know about life in Laos (I always like to have some little creative project to do....) I've finally finished it and put it up on YouTube - please feel free to watch! I've really been blown away from the response so far - its so good to know that people are thinking about us and praying for us at home, just like we are doing for them here.
So what's been happening?? Well, just after I last wrote, we attended our second function at the Australian ambassador's residence, this time for the Lao students who had been fortunate enough to win scholarships to study in Australia. This one wasn't attended by half of Laos (unlike the Australia Day party) so there was plenty of room for us to move around and talk to people - Chris introduced me to lots of his maths and chemistry students at Vientiane College. I also wore my new pretty peacock sinh set to me by Julie in Pakse :-)
The following Friday night was a treat - I spotted in the paper that there was a classical trio playing at the French Cultural Centre for 10000 kip (the equivalent of US$1), something I've never seen before in Vientiane. So Chris and I went along and heard some lovely Haydn, Beethoven and Mozart...and then four encores!!
Carrying on with the French theme, Chris took me out to the most expensive French restaurant in town on the following Saturday night. I relished my french onion soup and my pile of dessert (for some reason I got three different desserts...but one of them was creme brulee, thank God. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmm...) but after that I could barely move...
Sunday was a BBQ at Nishan's house (an extremely belated housewarming). I got in and cooked a cake again - this time mudcake. This was dangerous because everyone could smell chocolate cake as soon as they arrived, and when the children were offered a piece, everybody went for it, even though dinner was ready yet. I was lucky to get some!
I couldn't sleep after the party because of a migraine, which I think was brought on by dehydration. Finally I got rid of the headache but then spent the next day sleeping...
Last week passed rather quickly, my boss was back in the office and I instantly felt ten times more productive and efficient (he has that effect on people!) I think this was a major contributing factor in lifting my spirits, because I felt I was contributing at work again. However one major distraction was the 10 puppies that have been wandering around - Andy has four dogs at the office (since he lives above it) and one of them gave birth recently. They are incredibly adorable, I could watch them learning to walk, jumping on each other, sleeping in piles, for hours. But they do yap a lot, which is hard when you're trying to work...
On Thursday night I made chocolate mousse for a potluck dinner I was going to the following night. Chris vowed he wouldn't help after the pavlova episode of a few months ago. However, I'd lost my whisk, and I think I looked a bit sad whipping by myself, so Chris started beating away at the cream with a fork...two hours later, he was still going and ready to throw the cream through the wall...so Sam suggested we divided the cream into three bowls and all have a go. Eventually we got there...but this time I really think Chris will never help me again!
Friday night came the potluck dinner - it was a farewell for some of the AYAD's that arrived this time last year. I can't believe that when the new AYAD's arrive in two weeks time I will be no longer be a 'freshie'! The chocolate mousse went down a treat :-) Before the potluck, we went to a wake for the father of our incountry manager, Katherine. He arrived in November for a holiday and they discovered while he was here that he had cancer :-( Last week one of the AYAD's from our intake also headed home after receiving bad news about his father.. its scary to realise that anything could happen while I am here, and I am a long way away.
On Saturday Chris and I headed to the Friendship Bridge (which is the bridge between Laos and Thailand, 20 kilometres from Vientiane) to get our new tourist visas (don't ask when we'll get our multiple entry visas!!) We headed over the bridge to the Thai town on the other side of the bridge, Nong Khai. The first place we went to was their shopping centre, which was amazing...Starbucks, KFC and Tesco!!! Wow!!!! We had lunch on the river and then meandered through the markets before making our way back across to Laos.
That night we went bowling with our Lao friend from work, Ek. Everyone was in good form - in the third game, Chris got 165 - his highest score ever - and then Ek came in and got 167 (his highest score ever!!) We played five games - by the end my standard was definitely dropping because my fingers were so sore :-) Then it was off for some Lao food to end the night.
Sunday Chris and I went to church in the morning, and then joined everyone for lunch at an Indian restaurant afterwards. Chris' jaw dropped when he realised that there was Australia vs. India on the TV - these guys had a satellite connected :-) We contacted Sam straight away and Chris and him spent the next five hours there enjoying the entertainment (as well as yesterday afternoon...it's a pity that Australia lost because now there's no more games to watch!)
I will be back soon to report on what Julie and I get up to over the next week - yippee!!

Sok dee,
Susan