my adventures in southeast asia this journal is going to be a documentation of my travels and experiences in se asia this summer. i will be traveling with my university (of which i am a recent alumna), and touring the countries of vietnam, laos, cambodia, and thailand.

today we when out to hung hwa to see the demo of the landmines. it is very close to the laos boarder and was a long drive out in the countryside. we also stopped at two kindergarten classes. they are the sweetest most adorable kids ever. i hope one day i get to adopt one! we listened to them sing and then we dressed them in new clothes and gave them candy. one of the moments that hit me the hardest was seeing the kids toys. they were old cartons that had been cut to look like a car with wooden wheels on them. they were attached to a stick so the kids could drag them around. it was so humbling to see these little kids who were so happy. marketing has an entire segment devoted to appeal to kids and their parents. that kids need toys to be happy and smart. these kids were just as happy as any other little kids and it just broke your heart because we can see the difference in poverty. after the kindergartens we went to khe sanh museum. it was the sight of a military base during the vietnam war. bill and don, two of the guys on the trip fought during the war so they were explaining everything to us and it was very interesting. we went to get clothes made after our excursion. i had one of the traditional dresses made. it is a beautiful royal blue with white and lime flowers... im sure you will love it dad :). we then had dinner and then i had to do some laundry so i was in the whole night. laurie, my room mate, lost her husband two years ago to cancer and today was his birthday so she showed me pictures of them and told me stories about the things they had done together. they had the most beautiful adventurous life. it is so sad they she lost a man she loved so much... and still loves him. she talks about him all the time and you can tell how much he was to her. he flew hot air balloons and the african government hired him to do tours so laurie and doug spent three years living in africa! how amazing!!! i ended the night reading my sherlock holmes book... it is fantastic.