We left Hoa Long this morning at 10 am and it was an emotional goodbye....okay I was the only one crying but what's new! Actually, Cam cried too and Em broke down as soon as she got in the van. Phil and his sister hugged for a while and he told me later in the van that he was telling her this is the second time he says goodbye for the last time (okay, I'll admit it...the tears are running down my cheeks again) At least now we have skype, it's not so bad right?

Anyway, our last night at Chi Hai's was very special. We celebrated Malcolm's 8th birthday with a house full of family. There were cake and balloons and gifts and we introduced them to one of my family traditions known as "The Card Game" . It's the game where you pass around a deck of cards and then you call out one card at a time from another deck and when your card is called you take a gift from a pile of wrapped surprizes until there are none left and then you steal from others who have a gift until there are no cards left. If you have a gift in your possesion at the end, it is yours to keep. It didn't take long for them to get into the spirit of the game and a good time was had by all.

We are currently sitting in a hotel room in Saigon with our stuffed suitcases. We'll head out for one last walk around town and then have our last supper at a nice restaurant Phil and I ate at a few weeks ago. We board the plane for Hong Kong at 3 am so I guess we'll have to be at the airport around midnite. Ugh! Good thing the kids packed their snuggies, it's going to be a long night! The fun thing is, because of the time change, we leave here on Thursday and arrive in Toronto on Thursday. See you soon!

Btw Anne, Emily thinks your Chinese exchange student should be given a Snuggie blanket. Best thing ever!

C.