Happy Lunar New Year!

Chuc mung nam moi! Just celebrated the Lunar New Year. For the Vietnamese, the New Year's celebration is like Christmas, New Year's, and Easter all rolled into one. Basically all of Vietnam is on vacation for 10 days.  People all over the country go home to visit their families. Unfortunately for me this is not a good thing. The hotel rates double and so do the Vietnamese tourists trashing the beach.

Sorry to report there is no drama any more. Lam still tries to see me and sometimes I let her make her case for a while. She tries to tell me that she has changed. Wouldn't that be wonderful if we could all change our personalities over night just like that. Anyway, I am enjoying my solitude and peace of mind.

My son Frankie arrived a week ago and daughter-in-law Megan a few days later. It has been nice having them here. Both really like Nha Trang, the food, the beach, the weather, probably most of all the cheap alcohol and night life.

School is out for two weeks because of the Tet holiday and at first I was happy to have the time off but now I'm missing the kids again. I would have to say that being with my students is the most enjoyable thing I do here. I'd rather be with them than with any of the expats, the locals, even reading on the beach.

I am learning more than ever that happiness is not something you can find or go to a place and have. In fact, life itself is always presenting challenges that makes happiness always a momentary thing. I begin to see that life requires us to be always alert, learning, paying attention. No matter how good things are we can always fall into unhappiness and complain. We must learn to love what is. Even when the beach gets totally trashed by ignorant people. So, here I am, loving what is.