Letters to Someone Moving to Danang

[Tim]


This is a final installment, maybe. We will leave here in less than a week, and I don't know how valid any advice from me will be when once we've gone.  These are some things I've remembered to remind you to bring:

Straps:

We bought with one motorbike a flat metal contraption that could be strapped to the seat so that it sticks out in back and allows us to carry stuff.  A scooter stuffhauler.  We don't use it often--it's much simpler to use the hook between our knees and load on big bags of groceries out to either side.  But sometimes ... sometimes we are taking a big cooler to the beach, or we're going camping, or it's a day away at a waterfall or something.  And on those days, I wish I had a cinching strap (cambuckle).  I've got ropes and chains that I bought here, but I haven't ever seen a strap like I have at home for lashing things down.

Games:

I have dearly loved having the game For Sale.  We bought it specifically to bring to Vietnam, and it's a winner.  It plays perfectly with 6 players, and it's fast and small and fun.  Another fast game for 8 players is Incan Gold.  These two games provide me a relief from the game that everyone always wants to play but I secretly can't stand: UNO.  The students here are for-real crazy about UNO.

We love playing Nertz, and we had friends bring us 6 decks of cards (each with a different back) so we could play it with people here.  It's a winner.  

If I were coming for two years, I would bring more games.  I'd bring a double box of Jenga blocks.  Between Jenga and Spoons and Farkle, those would cover my bases for an easy "let's play a game" with a group of friends.  I would bring Werewolf to play with friends with language skills.  I'd bring some boxed games such as Tikal, Wits & Wagers, and Carcassonne.

We loved having a box of Mascarade, because with a group of more than 7, there are not so many games that are easy to organize that don't require verbal skills.  

Newbery-Award Winning books:

Nowadays I can send students to their favorite online source for eBooks, but I'd also like to have a library of good lend-able books at the middle school reading level.  I find that books that have earned a Newberry Award are both high-interest and the correct reading level for most of our English-speaking friends here.

Hydroflask:

We may not have mentioned it recently, but it's distressingly hot outside.  Imagine living in Oklahoma, but nobody uses air conditioners much and it's summer 6 months out of the year.  If you put ice water into an uninsulated plastic or metal container, it will quickly warm up and the outside will be ridiculously wet with condensation.  You dare not put such a bottle into a backpack, or all else in the backpack will be wet with the condensation.  Our Hydroflasks have been life savers here.  The wide-mouth kind can fit the larger Vietnamese ice cubes.

Earplugs:

You may never need to sleep on a train or find yourself at a performance with excruciatingly loud speaker systems, but it's better to come prepared.  We always sleep in earplugs when we are traveling.