Early Spring Update

I really tried to keep up with this project but alas, here we are, months later. 

Since the end of last year, I kind of got swept away with responsibilities: helping santa ( I got sick for a few days after that) a new year's eve eve trip to hong kong, my own school starting, our daily schedule, the list goes on. I really let this pseudo-newsletter fall behind, and I'm sorry about that. I look forward to giving everyone updates on how things are going and I'm looking forward to seeing many of the people who read this post in the future trips back home. 

We were able to do a solid Christmas this year, thanks in part to the people who sent Christmas money to us and the boys (you know who you are!! :) ) , and we had a nice cozy holiday. I also learned how to put bikes together this winter! I think I got them just s l i g h t l y too large of bikes, but hopefully they'll have a bit of a growth spurt this spring and Oliver will stop complaining about how the seat hurts when we try to ride them. 

In January, the boys took final exams for the first time, and Nolan's teachers made sure to allow for additional time for him to complete the exam and have the exam questions read to him. Their grades are given in a EMDB format, which is exceeding, meeting, developing, beginning goals/expectations, and Nolan's were mostly beginning/developing, while Oliver's were sitting mostly around meeting, which is a great end to the first semester at a new school. There are a few resources that I was not making use of up until this point, but I think that going forward we're going to get a few things rolling. I'd like to get math tutors for both kids, as well as handwriting support for Nolan and emotional support for both of them. There's a facility in the area called Olivia's place, and I reached out to them before the start of spring festival to see how ADHD diagnosis for Oliver would work, and I plan to hopefully have them both in by the end of the month. 

Oliver starts a new classroom in the upcoming semester, which will hopefully improve their independence at school. Oliver tends to over-parent his brother, and this leads to some pretty heated emotional responses from both of them. Oliver is my little drama boy- I suppose he gets that from me. Sorry, mom and dad!

As to what we've been up to, Keith and I sat down and made some resolutions lists in the beginning of january about the goals that we want to accomplish. I, for one, have been really trying to not hand in my assignments at the last minute, which is going pretty well! (I'm also 15 hours ahead, so even when I'm handing in assignments at 11:59 on Thursday its still breakfast time in Arizona) I started an Art History BFA at Arizona State University and hopefully by the end of Keith's contract in Shenzhen I can start looking for jobs as well. 

For Lunar New Year, we opted to fly out before the big crush of people started flooding out of China. Thanks to the Christmas money we received, we were able to book some cheap tickets to Danang, Vietnam and stayed in a quaint hotel for the week! If you follow me on Instagram (@kristenmayo or @anthoderma) you've seen me and the kids traipsing around beaches, amusement parks, and sculpture museums for the week which was quite cool! Toward the end of our trip, we met a little girl who lived next door to our hotel and the boys LOVED playing pokemon battle and mario with her. It was so cute! Honestly if you ever have the opportunity to go to Vietnam I highly recommend it. All of the food is delicious, even if its kinda mid compared to the other foods you've eaten. Everything is super cheap, and the locals are quite friendly. It felt so much different from Shenzhen- I was so surprised about just how many foreigners were there, it was almost shocking. The boys cant wait to go back to the beach, and if the tickets are cheap enough, we might go back before the summer. Even though I was up late every night doing homework, It was still an incredible experience!

We're on the Golden Hands Bridge at Ba Na Hills! 1400m (almost 4600ft) above sealevel

When we got back home, nearly everything had closed for Lunar new year- it was so strange to see such a busy city reduced to midnight traffic at 1pm. And they have been lighting fireworks at night the WHOLE TIME. Especially on the 9th and 10th we saw a ton of fireworks displays, but there have been a few spots that we can see from our window that have lit up for hours, taking breaks only to light the fuses, I guess! I of course got sick again, so new years day I spent basically comatose, which was kind of a bummer, but Keith really held it together. Since I'm posting this on Friday, many of the shops have reopened, and luckily most of the foreigner-targeted restaurants stayed open, so we were able to order pizza new years day!

As of Monday, we're back to our regularly scheduled programming, and I can look forward to having peace and quiet during the day :) 

Heres the link for the photos from our trip Danang Trip : https://photos.app.goo.gl/v3zd3JbGtepPyj1r9

and christmas : https://photos.app.goo.gl/EhnXr9hkT3pwWViH9