merry christmas

Hey guys,
So we got our christmas tree today. Well our students got it for us. I say "got" and not "bought" becuase they stole it from somewhere around song cong town - they wouldnt tell us where. Ms Yen told us that students would be at the front gate in about 10 minutes and that they had brought us something for christmas. Natural we were somewhat excited, but with the track record of presents so far, we had a vague thought that it wouldnt be anything to write home about... Boy were we wrong - well seeing as i am writing home about it :P

We walked outside and there on the nature stripe was a pine tree. We started to get rather excited and our teacher said that it was a tree for christmas. Awsome. I immediatly picked it up and it was taller than me! good sign... But now it possed the problem of getting it through the front door, up four flights of stairs and through our tiny front door and out another door onto the balcony! Luckily for Bridget and I it was quite light and after arguing with the doors for a couple of minutes, we only managed to drop a few pines for the cleaning lady who doesnt clean to pick up and get it out safely onto the balcony. Now the walk through the school with a Ginormous tree being carried by two westerners didn't go unnoticed and we caused quite a stir as everybody took one look, and then did the double take and then the question face and then the "ohh, western, christmas, tree." links in there heads. It was quite fun :D

We ended up standing in our room with many a visiting teacher - 6 all up i think - who had never been in our rooms before simply admiring the tree. It is rather spectacular and there is going to be many a photo of it when its all pretty.

And so now we have a tree. A stolen tree, from our students, which makes it all the better :D

And "why do we need a tree if we are only going to be here for another week after christmas?" i hear you ask. Becuase we are having all the Gappers from Hanoi over to our little house in the hills, in the middle of no-where for christmas. I can hardly wait to show the city slickers what there missing and show them around the real Vietnam - that i am now so used to that the persistant blackouts have lost there charm and now mean that i end up abusing song cong, Thai Nguyen and Vietnam, terrible i know... Anyway, so there all coming up, all 20 of them and were going to book the only restaurant in our street - well the only place within 5 kms... - and visit our local Bia Hoi for rediculously cheap 1.300 dong beers and chill out in our oddly inclosed balcony and sing christmas carrols and well, i wont deny it, have a bit of rice wine and generally be merry :P We have organised a KK so there will be a nice exchange of gifts also.

Anyway, Brdgets mum just called and i have to go...

Missing all who is reading this!

Sleep out!