Let me back up and continue the story where I left off. We were delighted to find that all of our luggage was waiting for us when we finished going through the immigration line. Oddly enough, ours was the only luggage cheerfully signed by friends and well-wishers. We love seeing all those messages! Thank you to all of you who came and signed them.
It was about 10:30 am when we left the airport and took a taxi to our hotel. I'm glad we were so tired, because it's harder to be anxious about getting lost and separated from each other when your brain has been reduced to a quivering jelly. The boys and I got in one taxi, Tim and Anna in another. When we don't have a year's worth of luggage with us we fit in one taxi, but for that first ride we split up. I thoroughly enjoyed the drive. Being back in Asia is delightful. The traffic is insanely beautiful. It just works. I'm really thankful that we had already arranged a hotel and had no decisions to make. Since we thought we would be there for two nights, and because we had so much luggage with us, we had rented an apartment rather than a single bedroom. When we first saw it I thought it was much too large for so short a stay, but it turned out to be a really good thing. We needed all that extra space to bump around in. If we had just been in small rooms featuring mostly BEDS! we would have found it tortuous not to be in those beds. Our first priority was to take enough of a shower to be clean enough to swim in the magnificent swimming pool. We were pretty stinky after our airport stay and sweaty arrival in tropical humidity! 
As you know, Tim is quite the networker, so he had already arranged for a woman from New Zealand to meet us and help us spend the day in the city. She joined us for a swim, and although we weren't the best conversation company that day, we were truly grateful to have someone keep us awake and help us get lunch and sim cards for our phones and such. We got to experience our first tropical downpour, and the boys had a second "swim," this time in the street. It definitely helped to cool things down. After our new friend left we had an all-out war against jetlag. Anna was bumping into walls, dozing off in strange positions, and occasionally making random and loud comments about cookies. She gave up the battle at about 6:30. Tim was whimpering and begging to sleep, so he did allow himself a short snooze. I was walking around constantly because if I stopped moving, and especially if I sat down, my eyes got impossibly heavy. Michael and Daniel were actually feeling pretty good because they had been able to sleep the most during the journey. We took a walk on the hotel grounds at about 7:00, and it was completely dark out. That's taking some getting used to. In all my life, if it's dark by 6:30, it's also cold outside. Having it dark and hot and not be late at night is a strange feeling. And it makes us so sleepy! At 7:30 we all gave up the fight and went to bed. We slept until about 5:30 and considered it a rousing success. Mission accomplished.
I'm going to skip ahead a few days so I don't get too far behind, and we'll keep filling in the blanks until we're current.
We arrived in Da Nang on Monday. We were met by our contact on the university staff and spent most of the first day with her. She took us out for a fabulous dining experience, and we'll tell you about that in more detail later. For those of you who know Daniel's eating habits, you'll perhaps be as amazed as I was to hear that he ate everything, didn't make yucky faces, and actually liked what he tried.
More stories to come are about the Vision English Cafe across the street from the campus. We have become regulars already, and we will be attending an English-speaking event there on Friday. The owners are Korean and their goal has been to provide a place for the students to hang out and practice their English. Michael has been enjoying fruit smoothies and Korean snacks. Anna has been thrilled to pieces to be drinking coffee.We'll also tell about house hunting and meeting new friends and going to the beach. We're so glad to be here!
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