As this particular time in Hanoi is coming to a close, we have been saying au revoir to the people who we 
have gotten to know during our two years. Today was Carol's last day at UNIS and there was a lunch and gifts were given out, silver boxes with "UNIS 2007" on the inside. Carol also received some jewelry and other items from colleagues, aides and parents. One item is a great apron on which Ira has already put in a claim.
Two years at UNIS will likely cap off Carol's teaching career although she will probably always maintain involvement with education and, most certainly with music.
We made up some envelopes for the office staff and bellmen, all of whom have been our friends as well as our helpers while we have lived at Sofitel Plaza. Each of them was grateful, yet each said he or she was sad to receive a farewell gift and they all say they will miss us. Fortunately this blog is written on a computer so our readers can't see the tears on the page.
Ira met An Son, his Vietnamese teacher for the first part of the year, for coffee and reminiscing, the other day. The two chatted in both languages, her English being superior to his Vietnamese(for now). Two of her classmates, Hanh and Thao, joined them for a while and they diplomatically told Ira how good his Vietnamese is. An Son gave Ira a gift: a CD of Vietnamese songs. We look forward to hearing of her progress as she gets her first job and goes out into the world.
Ira's current series of Vietnamese lessons came to a close and he was awarded an "A" grade at the level of Upper Intermediate. Ms Hai, his teacher, told him to practice as much as possible. He figures that he will have to get a lot of manicures as the nail salons are the only places where he is likely to find a lot of Vietnamese speakers.
Somehow, after being so careful for so long, Ira lost a contact lens. Despite the best efforts of his whole "contacts" list, he found out that, although contact lenses are readily available in Hanoi, you cannot get bifocals or lenses to correct astigmatism. Fortunately, his spare pair, while they are mono-vision, work fine for normal distance vision.
On his last day on the motorbike, Ira went to several vision centers in search of the elusive
replacement
lens, took some shoes to be repaired and snapped a few touristy photos.
Mr. Hai, an old friend from the days when he was the F & B Director at the Metropole, had invited us to dinner at his restaurant, Tara. What started out to be a small group turned out to be quite a party as
Hai's wife joined us, followed in quick succession by her brother, who has lived for many years in the Czech Republic, along with a Hungarian friend and business associate of his, Hai's 13 year old son, and an Indian friend of Hai's who now lives in Bangkok. We can always pretend that the people were attending in our honor, though that is stretching the truth a bit!
During our time here, we have often passed Ba Dinh Square, the location of Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum at night, when the area is lit up and throngs of people fill the area, doing tai chi, playing with their 
children and just walking about, seeing and being seen. We decided that just once, we had to be a part of the scene, so we had our taxi stop and let us off and we strolled with the crowd, chatting with them as we walked and enjoyed being a part of a Hanoi tradition.
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