My first Birthday in Vietnam

My first birthday in Vietnam was a lot of fun. Lan threw me a big party on the Sunday before my Birthday. We invited all of her family, her parents, and all her sisters, brothers-in-law, and niece and  nephews. Lan has a pretty big family, and so there were about 20 people there. Lan got me a really nice cake with a monkey on it. She and I are both year of the monkey, and we both like monkeys so we she had a monkey put on my cake. then Lan and her family made a huge feast for me, and we all sat around and ate. They don't have a table, so when they have a big meal like that they eat on the floor. It's actually not a bad way to go, there's plenty of room and everyone can sit together and visit.

Afterwards we cut the cake and I opened my presents. I got some nice presents. I got a couple of nice shirts, a tie, and a wallet. Lan bought me a red rose in a nice bouquet. After having cake and opening presents we played games for the rest of the night. Her family likes to play cards, and there are several different card games they like to play. I mostly play Blackjack with them, because the other card games are Vietnamese card games and I don't really understand how to play them.It was a lot of fun, I like Lan's family quite a bit, even though I can't really talk to them very much. We manage to communicate even though we don't speak the same language.

On Thursday my actual birthday I didn't do anything, because I had to work, but the next day Lan and I went out to the movies. We went out to lunch and the movies for my birthday date. We went and saw 'Alice in Wonderland', it was pretty good. I liked it. Lan liked it too. I can actually watch a lot of American movies here, though they don't always get released at the same time as they do in America.

I've included pictures from my birthday party on my blog.