Finaly! The boys got into Saturday Soccer and Saturday Basketball at UNIS. It´s a great programme with parents training the children. It´s open for the entire community in Ha Noi so it´s just not for UNIS attending children and parents.

During the day it´s not only the kids that is training. Adults have bootcamp training or other physical exercises at campus. Kids and adults from UNIS school are also selling hot dogs, snacks and drinks.


See more pics by clicking the link "read more" to the right.

We, as a family, have decided that on Sundays we will visit parks in Ha Noi area. It seems like a nice way to explore the city with the kids. This Sunday we went to Thống Nhất Park, commonly known as "Lenin Park". If you google Lenin Park you will get info about another park just opposit the Military History Museum. I dont know why everybody call Thống Nhất Park for Lenin Park. Maybe the statue of Lenin was in Thống Nhất Park earlier and then moved to the current Lenin Park.


Read more click on the "read more" link to the right.

You probably wonder why I´m so late wishing you happy new year. Well, in Viet Nam is Tết celebration (New year) in accordance with the luna calendar and it accurs on the first day of the first month of the Lunar calendar (around late January or early February).

Ha Noi has been crazy for a long time now because of Tết. Everybody is going around buying stuff to give to family and friends. The traffic is horrific. A motobike ride that normally takes 15 minutes, takes another 1 hour (during rush hour). This is the most important holiday/festival in Viet Nam and everything will shut down for a couple of days. We have had to buy all the essentials, like food, before the holiday. Its not like Sweden when you can go to the supermarket on new years eve untill 9 pm.

Today was the last day in school before the leave. There where celebrations and all the parents was invited. The kids performed a play, sang songs and danced. There was also a dragondance performence by the kids and later on there was proffesionals doing the same. I´m so impressed that the teachers get the kids to perform like that. So different from Swedish schools.

Click on the link "read more"  to the right to see more pics.

When Kaye and David was here we also visited the Vietnamese Ethnographic museum. It took a while to persuade the boys to join us. As usual they had a great time. Why bother to resist when they, by now, should know that we often are right in these matters. Anyway, the museum was great and everybody enjoyed it (however, a little different on a scale from 1-10. Let's say that Carol was the first through).

Se more pics on the link to your right.

Yesterday Ruben and all of the 3 graders performed a play called "What´s in your mind". I could not miss this for anything in the world so I went even though I am sick. Panadol does the trick for a while. I´m glad i went. It was so good. The kids were so talented. I am so impressed that the teachers get the kids to perform the songs with such passion. There were probably many proud parents with wet shiny eyes in the audience.

Se also Ruben and his class performing Ace of Base´s "I Saw The Sign" on Rubens page.

What to do when there is no school on a Tuesday? Why not a day out in Ba Vi national park with half the Niklasson family. From Ha Noi 1.30h by car. We took a taxi and it ended up 1.2 miljon VND (350 SEK), just what the local staff at the embassy said it would cost. It was a lovely day for all of us and we ended up walking approximately 4 km. 1,5 hour up the mountain and 30 min down. There was almost no people at all. According to our maid Sinh the weekends are very busy. All the young people want to get away from the family to spend some time with their sweetheart.

Want to see more pics - click on the link "read more" to the right.

11-11-11. A day that occurs once in a lifetime. A special day for special events. At UNIS they celebrated with a charity event - Walk-A-Thon. The kids did laps on the field track and for every lap they did their sponsors had to donate a predetermined amount of money. The money will go to Blue Dragon Children´s Foundation.

Please visit: http://www.streetkidsinvietnam.com

Want to see more pics? Just click on the link "read more" to the right.

 Pneumonia and tonsillitis. Probably both boys. Uncertain of Ossian. Test results are expected as regards tonsillitis. It all started with fever and followed by coughing. It all started  when the boys had trouble sleeping at night and we went to the pedriatric clinic to get some coughing medicin. They started to take blood samples and the boys had their lungs  z-rayed. Ruben do not like to be stung by a syringe and he fainted. Not once but twice. Ossian screamed loudly and scared the other children at the clinic.


I was thinking "why all this". But the doctor explained that Viet Nam is not like Sweden. A common cold spreads more easily to the lungs and worse things can then occur. We do not want that to happen, do we? But it had already happened and the result is - 4 different medications. Now I am trying to occupy the boys with games and crafts just to keep them from fighting with each other. Next time I'll act a little faster just to be on the safe side. __

What to do a Sunday afternoon with the boys when mom is on a trip to Sweden? When Ruben suggested that we should go to Vincom Tower and play games in the arcade I did not hesitate. After all I am just a small boy in a big body. Carol would never join us so it was a perfect opportunity that should not go to waste. We had a lot of fun.

This weekend it was Halloweenparty at the Swedish camp. It was about 30+ kids with parents who had a great time. Aimee and Malin at the camp had done a great job organizing food, drinks, cake, baloon-man, playdoo-man and of course trick or treat for the kids. The boys had done a great job with their costumes.