Popin Cookin & AEON Mall

This week has been a little disjointed; we've had different class schedules because of finals tests but we finished our last test with English this afternoon. Next week should have a normal schedule for my very last week at school in Vietnam. I aced my computer final (which I know because she scores those in class), but I have yet to receive the grades for my other tests. Right now I'm working with my English teacher to get all the grades officially so I'll have something to show for my semester spent in Vietnam. In terms of college apps, everything's pretty much done and I'm looking at different scholarship applications now.. I've been accepted to 2 of my 8 schools so far and because I applied Early Action to all of them, I'll hear by the end of the month whether I got into the others or not.

Anyway, on Wednesday Dung came home with this fun activity called "Popin' Cookin!" It's a product from Japan that comes in a little box and you essentially mix the different powders it gives you with water to create "food". Many people make them on YouTube so I had seen one before but I hadn't made one ever. Dung bought a cake mix which was good because in the videos I've seen with the food items (like cheeseburgers and pizza), they all taste disgusting. In the end, the cake was OK. It was a little too artificial tasting for me but Anna loved it and it was fun to make. My Japanese skills definitely came in handy since the instructions were entirely in Japanese but it probably wouldn't have been too difficult to figure out without instructions either. The pictures show the box with the different powders and the final product.

Finally, Thursday was Anh's birthday! For my grandmothers birthday we had a big hot pot dinner at home to celebrate so I figured we would do that again but instead, we went out to dinner. Dung and Anh met us downstairs (I think they had come from the city) and we all went to a Japanese restaurant at Aeon Mall for dinner. I hadn't been to the mall yet and it's pretty much brand new so it was cool to see but at the same time, I really don't like malls. It was huge (almost as big as MOA in Minnesota), and there were a lot of people walking around, even though it was a Thursday night. We had Japanese BBQ and it was pretty good but because it's "winter", the mall had the heat on and I was roasting the entire night. Additionally, malls are stuffy to begin with but when the air conditioning isn't on, they're even worse. Needless to say, I prefer to be somewhere with natural light

and fresh air. After we ate Anna really wanted to play in the arcade area so we went over there for a little while and tried out some different games. She also wanted a stuffed animal from the grabber machines but Anh and I both encouraged her not to get one. Those games are made to take all your money and not give you any prize and sure enough, she made Anh play about 10 times to try and win a prize, and came up with nothing. We left after that because she was pretty upset and it was late anyway. All in all it was a good evening and I think Anh had a good birthday, even if Anna was a little disappointed. However I told my grandmother that next week for my birthday, I would prefer to eat a nice meal at home.

This weekend I have my last two language lessons with Viet. I think we're planning on going to the Old Quarter and I'm hoping to get some recommendations for good dinner spots there for when Lily comes. I'm going to meet her at her hotel next Friday and we'll get

dinner so I want to have a few good options. It's crazy that I'll be going home so soon but I'm definitely excited for my last week here with Lily and our awesome tour.

Anyway, I've got to be up early to catch the bus tomorrow so I'm headed to bed now. Thanks for reading and happy Friday!