At the Chaing Mai Airport (notice the stickers on our sleeves ) :)

Sweltering heat, anticipating relatives, and eager friends: this is what waits upon our arrival. My uncle pinches my cheek, my aunts pat my arms, and my cousins hug my legs, while my grandmother looks proudly on. Insisting on lugging our luggage ( backpacks and laptop bags included ) for us, not letting us lay a finger on it; they hasten us all into a van. I sit myself in the backmost seat with the laptop for the long tedious ride to Hai Phong. After about 20 minutes of trying to watch Leave it To Beaver in the bumpiest part of the van with a swingy screen and sunlight streaming through the tint-peeled window, I give up and turn to my trusty ipod. As Owl City played, I am handed handfuls of this and that to nibble on. Half a piece of grapefruit, a white bread roll, several small peaches, a bottle of green tea, and morsels of peanut sticky rice are just a few of what is handed back to me. Drowsily I nibble on what i can, then situate myself in the most comfortable position one can attire on the back of a jarring vehicle. Finally, I fall asleep ( or I just fall into a state of almost being asleep, but still conscious of what is going on around me. ) I wake up to the loud honking of moterbykes and taxis swerving too close and the bright lights of the "city" ( I do not consider Hai Phong a city exactly, compared to Chiang Mai, yet it is not the country either ) My legs have fallen asleep, my ipod's battery is almost dead and one side of my face is wrinkled to the pattern of the seat.

The ally, streets and my sisters

Finally we reach our destination. Scrambling over the seat and out onto the street, we lug action packers ( if you are an avid traveler, you know what those are, but for the sake of those who aren't: action packers are big strong plastic "boxes" with a snap-on lid that can lock. ) and suitcases up the ally and up the stairs through those proverbial doors and into the arms of my faithful, arthritis-boned grandfather.

Amy (who saw us off at the airport) and my siblings- KG, GJ and Abigail

Anyways, my family and some of our cousins are going to go to Monkey Island and the beach tomorrow, so i've got to get a good nights rest. Tam biet!