Birthday in Nam

Here are my birthday buys!!

Well I'm another year older, at the point where we don't need to actually say the age anymore. But I did have a wonderful birthday here in Vietnam, it was more like a 4 day celebration. On friday night there was a group of 20 of us that went to Barbeque Garden to eat. We ordered lots of yummy food, me mostly meat (of course) to grill at the table. It was a great chill time. After some people went out to party but I was hot and tired and wanted to save myself for saturday night. I know I can't party two nights in a row anymore.

Saturday I went out with Stephanie, Sophie, Todd, Avis, Frank, Nell, and Stacey. We went to four different bars. Started off in the backpackers district for a fish bowl for only $8, yummy. The dj even played happy birthday for me. Then went to a cowboy saloon that had a phillipino cover band playing metallica among other awesome songs. They were hilarious, it was a great time. I made friends with a regular and got 3 free gin and tonics. Also met the manager of the bar and band and he had them sing happy birthday to me (AWESOME) and they gave me a gift. So I am now the owner of a beautiful cd case that has a picture of Seventeen Saloon on it saying "Best Music in the Town" I used it as my purse for the rest of the night, my little wristie. I partied like it was my birthday that is for sure. I had a great time and finished up the night with street pho at 4am. It was my first time having street pho and it was delicious. It was so odd sitting on little plastic stools with different plates and silverware than each other, rats in the background. But really it was amazing and ONE DOLLAR, crazy huh?

My awesome birthday partying definitely hit me hard on sunday, let's just say I had a rough morning errr day. I might not have changed out of my pjs all day! It was rough but worth it. Monday brought me back to school for my actual birthday. It was super sweet, the kids sang me happy birthday and some of them gave me gifts, one 4th grader brought me cookies, another made me a card, it was so cute. Avis made me chocolate chip cookies, they were spectacular and made me think about my mom and how she always made me birthday cookies. So the day went well. I tried to tell the younger classes that my birthday was a holiday, not sure if they believed me. After work I went to dinner with Diane and Vicky at Restaurant 13, it is a yummy place right on the Saigon River, they surprised me and treated me to dinner, it was really sweet. After I went to Fanny's for dessert with Avis and Stephanie and had a yummy crepe from them on my bday. I didn't expect all the love and caring from my coworkers because we haven't known each other that long but I really really appreciated all that they did for me from dinner on friday, to drinks sat, and going out on my bday, monday. It was a great time, it was the first time I was really far away from home. I had a blast and even got to see my mom and dad sing me happy birthday on skype! Not sure what I would do without skype, I can't believe I lived in London for 6 months and only got to hear my parents voices on the phone, skype is incredible. You all need to get it stat. My name is jenniferahuff, find me!

So today I decided to go treat myself for my birthday and do a little shopping. I am still having some trouble going into the little shops because the people are like "one size" or "that is too small for you." I know I am bigger than I use to be and of course bigger than the people here but they have no tact at all, it gets frustrating and I still haven't gotten my skin thick enough to not let it bug me. But I found some awesome deals and a shop that had "Big Sizes" ha ha! Even though it is frustrating to hear those comments and find things my size, it is a steal shopping here. If you guys need a new winter coat, snowboard pants, north face anything, come here. They have all this stuff, new and cheap. Also they have banana republic, zara, gap, dkny, calvin klein, you name it. Basically everything you can buy back home is here. It is here because if they print the wrong size on the label or the cut of the top is a little off, they give it to people here, cheap. So here is what I bought today at Lucky Plaza: white capris $5, North Face backpack $5, DKNY top $8, black tank top $6, pink shirt $4, 2 pairs of Nike shorts $6 each, Project Runway Seasons 1-6 $10, The Blind Side dvd <$1, Knight & Day dvd <$1, a wooden map of Vietnam for our apartment wall $9. Bringing the grand total of my shopping spree to $60. Did I mention I love shopping here?

So yes I'm another year older, but I had a great birthday here in Vietnam and it wouldn't have been so special without my coworkers here. I also really felt the love from back home in emails, facebook messages, and on skype, thank you!!!!