This week started with our morning meeting although I think the teachers have run out of students to make perform at the assembly. Instead, the principal spoke for 20 minutes then played a video; no one in our class could tell what the video was for though because they played it on a tiny screen, we sit farthest from the front of the gym on the seats above the floor, and the audio was very scratchy. It seemed to last forever but we made it through and began the day.

It genuinely seems to be getting cooler now; it's been in the mid-70's most of the week (though today was hotter) and the humidity is less noticeable. Though I'm not feeling cold yet, the temperature feels much cooler in comparison to the typical upper-80's to mid-90's temperatures we had all summer and through September. On Monday, The Anh's grandparents left for the week so he stayed in his apartment alone each evening. He was pretty bored so I had the idea to go try out the pool table I saw a few weeks ago. The "cafe" seemed more like a bar to me (it had a full, stocked bar on one side) but we were allowed in and played for almost an hour. It was fun to play again although neither The Anh nor I realized that it cost money; needless to say, I won't be going back there as often as I'd originally planned.

On Tuesday afternoon, we played basketball. There have been random power outages recently so we figured that we should play while it was light out in case the lights on the court went out. After dinner I went to the playground with Anna as we normally do and she did lots of swinging and going down the slide. I was expecting two packages from my family on Tuesday - one with a math textbook (oh joy!) and the other full of gifts for my host family. They didn't arrive on Tuesday but came Wednesday afternoon instead; the boxes looked very beat and had clearly been searched but everything inside was intact and in good condition. I gave a puzzle of the Seattle skyline to my host grandmother and grandfather; they stay home most of the day so I thought it could be something fun for them to do. Unfortunately, they didn't find the gift quite as exciting as Anna did; I think she'll end up being the one to help put the puzzle together.

After I got home on Thursday I skyped Lily so that we could plan her visit in December!! She's planning on coming during my last week here - we're going to go on a tour of the North right around Christmas time since my family thought Christmas at home would be too weird without me and my mom proposed this as a gift for Lily's final graduation. There are many tour options but I think we settled on one that goes around the Northeast region of the country and ends in Halong Bay with an overnight on a boat! We obviously haven't confirmed it yet but are excited at the prospect; it will be cool to see more of the country and especially cool to experience it all with Lily. Plus, she can help me bring some of my stuff home to Seattle since I'll have more than when I came. A few hours after I got off Skype with her, the power suddenly shut off. The air con turned off, the lights went out, and my computer stopped charging. The sun was setting quickly so I got out my headlamp in case the power didn't come back on in time. Luckily it came back on about five minutes before the sun set and I didn't have to walk around with my head lamp on. After dinner, I played basketball with The Anh and Anna went on a walk with Dung and Anh.

Hopefully I can go climbing this weekend, I'll have to bus but it will be better now that the weather's cooled off a little. Now I'm off to avoid this giant, creepy, beetle-looking bug that I saw on my desk - it mysteriously disappeared and I think it's lurking in my room somewhere... anyway, happy Thursday and Thanks for reading! Enjoy the random food pictures - just some of the few I took throughout the week.