Hi friends! We’ve successfully lived in southeast Asia for two weeks! It simultaneously feels like three days and also four months (maybe I’m still a little jet-lagged).

These first two weeks have been full of getting acclimated to the city, figuring out our bearings and beginning language lessons.

We were so blessed to have Nathan’s parents travel with us and stay with us the first week and a half. This allowed us to explore the city without a baby in tow. It was SUCH a blessing. Let me tell you though, Hezekiah has been a champ through this whole moving process. He is sleeping through the night fairly consistently and is always smiling, even when we’re wetting him down with an ice cube because he gets so sweaty.

Here are some things we have tackled during our first two weeks here:

1. We have had so much coffee. Coffee is very popular here. We both knew this from previous trips, but I am always blown away by the sheer amount of coffee shops. Almost every apartment complex has one, as well as being able to find at least a couple on every block. These people know their coffee. One of the drinks they are known for is a thick, dark coffee (similar to espresso) poured over ice, and topped with sweetened condensed milk. It’s delicious and I’ve probably drank more than you should drink in a year. You can also get teas, smoothies and other coffee drinks. Just looking at the coffee shop’s menu that I’m in right now, and some of the options are avocado coffee, coconut coffee, avocado smoothie, and you can also get jelly added to most teas. Despite both of our like for coffee, we decided to forgo buying a coffee pot and stick with instant coffee (that may or may not smell like beef). Oh well. There is a large possibility we will be asking for an aeropress or pour over or something similar when someone visits next. 

   

2. We tackled the grocery store! There are a couple smaller markets in our apartment complex, as well as supermarkets nearby, however there is one grocery store that was described to us as a mix between Wal-Mart and Costco. It has normal portioned items, but looks like a warehouse like Costco. We got very mixed reviews on if people liked it, some of our friends seemed to really enjoy going there, where others despised it. However, we have survived two trips there thus far, and I really do enjoy it. You can get just about anything there. You know… cow hearts, lays potato chips, mattresses. Plus, it’s only a little over half a mile walk from our apartment. (I didn’t take any pictures of the store since I was mainly focused on checking out before the masses of people arrived. We were warned not go on Saturdays because it gets pretty busy, but we went anyways thinking 7:00 was early enough, but the longer we were there the more people showed up. We have learned our lesson).
3. Local food! Both Nathan and I love the local food. Some of our friends do “Local Food Friday” where we go and grab some local food and end the night with cheesecake or ice cream. It’s great. So far we have tried a couple rice and pork dishes, as well as bò né, which was egg, onion, beef and sausage that you put on some bánh mì (a big baguette thing). I’m pretty sure I could live off of local food here, as long as I don’t have to cook it… I’m still working on cooking American food.

   

4. We began language lessons. I wouldn’t quite say we have ‘tackled’ this yet, as the only words I can confidently say are ice cream, chicken, peach tea and my favorite coffee drink. Although we have just begun, I am excited to be able to communicate better with people here. I tried to practice saying “thank you” to one of our taxi drivers and he just stared at me, so clearly, I have a ways to go.
5. Hezekiah turned two months old! He continues to be a smiley, easy-going baby. He loves being carried in the ergo, and we tried the Moby wrap this month too. He is the happiest in the morning, and he had his first massive blow out on his grandma (pictured below). Side note: diapers are weird here. We’ve tried a couple of different brands, but they either don’t fit right at all (cue the blow-out picture), or they are just pull-ups and don’t have the little tape things. He’s also developed a bit of a diaper rash, so I think I’ve been convinced to jump on the cloth diapering trend. They have those nifty little butt sprayers on all the toilets here, so I figured that would be convenient for cleaning. Anyways, I cannot believe he’s already two months old. We love you so much baby Hez!

The next couple of weeks will be full of more language learning, conquering our motorbike fears (okay, maybe just my fears- Nathan is very confident in his abilities), and continuing to get used to our new home.

If you have any questions, things you’d like me to blog about or just want to say hi feel free to comment, shoot me an email or facebook message.