We arrived in Saigon (or HCMC, whichever you prefer) last Monday night. My company car picked us up from the airport and took us to our temporary apartment. Baxter did absolutely incredible on the long flight and was his old self the minute we stepped off the plane. He was the hit in the Tokyo and Saigon airports! It's nice having kids or pets with you - I think it really does soften people's hearts and win brownie points. As for our first week in VN, it is definitely a different experience moving somewhere compared to visiting. We were prepared for certain things, for instance:
- The CONSTANT stares (a white girl and Asian guy, who would've thought? A poodle wearing rubber footies, seriously??)
- The insane traffic (honking, swirving, acting "cool" whilst crossing the street)
- The pollution (I bought a face mask yesterday for my morning 30 min walks with Bax)
Certain things we had only heard about, but not prepared for, such as censorship on TV. One morning last week, Johnny was watching a program on National Geographic about the Vietnam War and sure enough, the minute the program started talking about North Vietnam, the television blacked out. Actually, it was more of a multi-colored still-frame, but still. And not for five minutes, or even fifteen minutes, for the rest of the program. Weird. Another thing we weren't prepared for was apartment hunting. Ay ay ay. That was exausting. We worked with three different brokers who showed us many kinds of apartments located in Districts 1 and 3 (the equivalent to South Loop and West Loop). The rent here is RIDICULOUS - very expensive, so it's hard to justify certain apartments when we have been spoiled by the South Loop and Chicago in general for so long. At any rate, we found a place just a 1/2 block from my work and in the heart of the city. Perfect location, although the apartment itself will take some getting used to. It's not horrible, but it's hard to please spoiled Chicagoans. :) The place is clean, fairly big, and priced well for the size and location. Our third broker, William, helped us find the apartment, and is going to help us touch it up. He took us around to find the best-priced couch and bedding, and introduced us to the Co-Op (a MUCH insane-er version of Walmart). We are so grateful for his help - truly the right person at the right time. Below are a few pics. I will post more later this week once I consolidate IPhone photos. :)
Awesome sushi and fish - of course we include food in our blog photos!

Johnny is H-A-P-P-Y (and sooo handsome!).

Me donning the new face mask - the stares were in abundance!

This is a high-end mall in District 7 - an up and coming area. District 7 is about 30 minutes from the city center. It's like a suburb.
