Fun. Fun. Fun. Picture fun.

Yesterday after school I met up with Riki and Saleshni for massages. Thank goodness they turned out to be better than our massages with the 3 blind men! ...Parts of yesterday's massage felt wonderful... but other parts scared me! Massages here are not all about relaxation haha. Towards the end, my lady had me sit cross-legged, with my arms folded behind my head, and then she put one of their legs through my legs in front, curled her arms through mine... and twisted me back so that 1/2 my body went one way, and the other half goes the other way! I yelped! Riki and Saleshni began laughing. I wouldn't let her do it in the other direction to me... maybe I'm a bit lopsided now... but I'm still all in one piece.

From there, I met up with some teachers for dinner at a great restaurant, Au Parc, near the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was delish. By the time we were ready to leave, it was raining - hard. There was some crazy thunder and lightning... we waited a bit... ordered dessert, had more wine... and then just went for it. I gave Sarah the raincoat from the tailor to wear... hilarious...

...And what a wonderful Saturday I've had so far! I met up with Riki and Saleshni at a cute restaurant for breakfast. From there we took a walk and stopped in to see the Notre Dame Cathedral...

Then we walked to a park where we've seen people working out on these "twisty" machines outside along a busy road and we wanted to try it. The park is beautiful... I had fun taking pictures...

All over, there were groups of photographers taking pictures of beautiful, young girls posing and modeling in various parts of the park. It was kind of funny how many photographers were needed for each model...

There is a small "amusement park" in a corner of the park... and Saleshni and I went on a ride (very amusing to the guys working there!)...

We also stopped for drinks at this cute little tea house...

Then we finally found enough energy to go for a workout on the twisty machines! ...haha  :P

Saleshni has told me about this delicious roasted banana dish that is smothered in a tapioca sauce... On our walk back towards the restaurant for my scooter, a cart rode past us with this sweet treat... oh.my.gosh... delicious!

We also went past the Reunification Palace (formerly known as Independence Palace)... it's the first time I've seen this building from the front (funny, since it's in the center of the city and I've been near it a number of times)...

And here are some other fun photos from today:

All of the trees in the park are numbered...

 This little temple was so beautiful.

Tonight I'm meeting up with another librarian! Rachella is from Buffalo, NY and this is her 2nd year in Ho Chi Minh City, teaching as a librarian in an international school. I love that the librarians throughout the city have formed an email group and meet up a few times a year. Rachella got in touch when she heard that I'm from Upstate New York... and then I found out that her brother-in-law and his wife just started with me at AIS as new teachers too! (They are not at the middle school with me but we did have the two weeks of orientation together.) I'm excited to get together with her and make a new friend that is outside of AIS.  :)