Happy Thanksgiving! I'm writing this at 9:30 PM in Vietnam so I expect everyone is starting to wake up and get ready for a long day of cooking. I texted Emma earlier who's in Portland with my parents and Lily. As most of you know, we go to Portland every year for Thanksgiving at our cousins house and this year, Lily even flew down from Vancouver for the holiday. We usually stay at the Rech's house but there are more relatives there than usual so my family gets to stay in a "cottage" at the Waverly Country Club. I wrote cottage in quotes because according to Emma, "it's bigger than our house." We're planning on Skyping tomorrow when the festivities are over and though I'm sad to miss it, I'm planning on cooking a small thanksgiving dinner here! I was going to cook today since it's Thursday and technically "Thanksgiving Day" but Dung is in Ho Chi Minh city so she wanted me to wait until she got back. Now the plan is for me to cook on Sunday night, which makes sense since it's an elaborate meal that I'll probably need the whole day to cook.

I'll be making an abridged menu since many ingredients (including turkey) aren't available in Vietnam, and I don't have the means to cook a massive feast like we do in Portland. I'm planning on cooking roast chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, and salad. Though Dung told me she enlisted the help of her employees to buy the right ingredients, she left for Ho Chi Minh city today and wont get back until Saturday when I'm climbing so I'm a little concerned I wont have what I need... Hopefully she'll have the food at home when I get back from my day of climbing - the main thing she's buying is the chicken and I really can't cook a Thanksgiving dinner without the main dish. Anyway, I'm crossing my fingers that it all works out okay and I guess you'll hear on Sunday night how it went.

This week has been okay; it's actually cold now which I can say with confidence. Previously, we had a few cool days but it's now been consistently between 65 and 75 degrees which is positively freezing for many native Vietnamese people. Dung went out yesterday in a puffy down jacket! It still doesn't feel that cold for me but in comparison to the weather we had before, it's a pretty drastic change; I might even wear a sweatshirt to school tomorrow! What's most weird to me though is that people think it's so cold out but the girls are still required to wear skirts to school and the school store doesn't sell tights. Many of the girls in my class come to school in big jackets and I know they would be a lot warmer if they could just wear pants. I suspect it's just another weird gender-related rule here.. After having to wear a skirt five days a week for the past four months, long pants are really uncomfortable but I would at least appreciate having the option of wearing them now that it's finally cool out. Having pockets would be nice too.

In other weather news, my mom commented on my post a few weeks ago about the rain and how it's supposed to be the dry season right now. After searching a little on Google I've found that the start of the dry season in the North ranges from October to December (ending in May) but seeing as though it's nearly December, it should be consistently dry now. It's rained every single day this week. Hopefully it wont rain when I go climbing on Saturday though because the rocks can be slippery and dangerous when they're wet - not to mention that it's just generally less pleasant to be outside for an extended period of time in the rain.

Tomorrow I'll be doing some more shopping to get the stuff for Thanksgiving that they actually sell in the Ecopark as well as some snacks for climbing too. I tried to go tonight but I couldn't get any money from the ATM because my "host bank is closed". I realized about five minutes after I tried to withdraw money the second time that it's now Thanksgiving in the states so, of course, the bank is closed. Anyway, I'm headed off to bed now, if only this incessant dog would stop yapping. I'm on the 17th floor but somehow I can hear (what sounds like) a tiny dog outside that's been barking nonstop for the past 20 minutes.

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving, whether your tradition is football and a simple dinner, or a huge feast with family and friends at your cousins house in Portland :) This year I'm thankful for the opportunity I've had to study abroad and I'm immensely thankful for my family in Seattle who's supported me throughout my time here, especially my mom who has helped me through a lot of stressful situations and with important tasks that I can't do from Vietnam. I'm also thankful for my new family in Vietnam, especially my grandmother who is hilarious and a great cook, and Dung, who offered to host me here. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!