A Sunny Sunny Christmas!

The weather has been incredibly hot so the girls and I decided to find a nice hotel pool. We spent the day lounging at the Rex Hotel pool! Not a bad way to spend the day in DECEMBER!

Christian, Amanda and ME

On Christmas Eve we went out to dinner with Christian and David to Hard Rock Cafe. The food was delicious... just what we wanted a good ol' American meal! First Christmas away from family and home and I'll admit it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. 

Saigon President Palace

Dior and I visited the Reunification Palace in Ho Chi Minh City. Built by the French as a presidential palace (we call it the Saigon White House) its story that most impacted us was of a North Vietnam tank crashing through its gates on April 30, 1975. This moment symbolically marked the of the end of South Vietnam's government.

Dior in front of the Palace

Presidential sitting room with office behind it.. you can see the Presidents desk chair behind the real ivory tusks!

Presidents living area, with garden.

Looking out from the balcony where many Presidential photos were taken.

Elephant feet given as a gift to the President

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The tank that "ended" the war

Meet the Heat!

Water puppet show in Ho Chi Minh City

 Dior and I visited a water puppet  show that was like nothing I'd ever seen before. The puppet strings are under water so you cant see them. The fish puppets dive in an out of the water and little boat puppets roam the waters. It was a really sweet show that I'm glad we visited on one of our first sightseeing nights :)

Life size puppet

 After the water puppet show we went out to dinner. Each table has a small stove with boiling broth and you order the raw ingredients that you would like to put in to your broth. The soup cooks right at your table!

We went out for drinks and dancing with Dior's teammate David and his girlfriend Christian. Ended up meeting the manager of Blanches bar from Brasil! My new favorite night spot :)

Finally we were able to see the stadium and meet the entire team and staff at the Meet the Heat Fan Night! We had a great time and took plenty of pictures. So nice to see the true fans of the Saigon Heat.

"Xin Chao"= Hello!

We have only been in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam for a few days and we have already covered so much ground!

The view of the city from the rooftop of the historical Rex Hotel.

Notre Dame Cathedral in the center of the city.

City Hall

 We were invited to Dior's teammates wedding here in Saigon. The wedding was held at the Grand Palace a gorgeous building with many banquet rooms. The night of their wedding there were many other weddings going on in the other rooms. Outside of the banquet room the bride and groom greet guests and receive their "gifts" of money. We had a great time!

We also went out to dinner with Dior's team and there were women playing these instruments. We've seen these types of instruments at other restaurants but still aren't sure what they're called. They sound so soothing like in your in a spa :)

Last night we went exploring with two other teammates Phillip, David and their WAGs Amanda & Christian. Cheers to starting the trip on a fantastic note!

Mini Slovakia

Dior and I took a day trip to Nitra, where we were able to see an exhibit of "Miniature Slovakia." The exhibit had all the main churches and historical establishments of Slovakia in mini version!

We also visited the Nitra mall MLYNY, it was incredible! Three story mall packed with great shopping (H&M, shoe stores, candy shops, McDonalds, EVERYTHING).

Sadly, the mall had a nice bookstore with a coffee shop inside similar to our Barnes and Noble but no English section. I guess I will have to stick to reading books on my iPad. Speaking of reading, the overseas wifey club started a reading group. We're reading a sappy book titled Love the One Your With.

Bookstore in Nitra, Slovakia.

Coldest European Winter in Decades!

Dior and I can proudly proclaim we survived a blizzard! Five minutes into our walk the snow began to fall... furiously! I could feel the snow piling up and my boots sink while I walked. When we were safely indoors my hands were in so much pain from the cold (forgot to wear my gloves!). I couldnt help but laugh... how in the world did a girl from small town Hollister get stuck in a blizzard. Not only that but in Europe during the coldest winter in decades.

Our sweet neighbor who shovels our walkway.

This was right before the blizzard began!

Before the snow became terrible we took a day trip to Nitra to watch our Slovak team play. I mentioned before that Nitra has many interesting looking churches. I took a picture of one that reminded me of the Netherlands.

Nitra, Slovakia

I met a couple nice Slovakian girls at Omega bar this weekend. They were very sweet and one is actually taking me to get my nails done next week! In Belgium it was very expensive to get your nails done but here the cost is about the same as America (22 Euro).

Silly Dior, Me, Nikka and our buddy Kevin.

Our Center Mike and his wife Kimber have three awesome children. I get to see them at the games and at the hotel. I always look forward to seeing how many more steps baby Maliyah can take.. that and the funny face she learned to make!

Maliyah in her custom made Levice jersey!

Brrrrrr its Cold Out Here!!

Levice weather forecast: Mostly Cloudy, High Chance of Snow. High 26F and Low 9F.

Is this cold enough? No actually its not because last week we had a low of 7F. Yes 7.
We've had a lot of snow recently and I'm thinking it's Dior's fault. Dior kept going on about how its already February and its not going to snow anymore. Guess he was wrong.

Check out this frozen river!!

 I went on my first road trip to the city of Nitra, Slovakia. I drove with another teammate's wife and we got very lost. I actually prefer getting lost (as long as we eventually get there) it gives me a chance to see more of the city. We were lost in a residential area so I got to check out all the tiny one way streets. Nitra has a fabulous mall and I've already been researching how to get there by train! Similar to the rest of Europe there were many massive churches in Nitra. However, what really caught my eye was this giant power plant. I can actually see it from my apartment so on the drive to Nitra I took a closer look. I was told its a Nuclear Power Plant..............

Looks like Homer Simpsons work.

Dior's team just started the second round of the season which decides what two teams will be heading to the playoffs. Six teams are already automatically in so now the bottom eight teams need to battle it out for the last two spots.

Thank you Internet!!

Just wanted to take a moment to say how thankful I am for the Internet. The Internet is what keeps us all sane while we are away from America. I am able to keep up with Grey's Anatomy, novellas and all my garbage shows. Dior is ale to watch his sports and read his eurobasket articles. Most importantly we are able to instantly get in contact with our families and write these blogs. Thank you Internet... Even if your slow.

Dior and Kevin watching the Niners and the USF game at the hotel.

January Snow

Yesterday we had a gorgeous sunny day and today we have a cold snowy morning! I loved seeing the snow this morning. Notice the coffee cup... every city we live in Dior gets me a new funky coffee mug. I usually leave them behind but I'm starting to think they are sweet and probably should have kept them all.  I'll have to add the mug collection to my already large magnet collection. (I'll post a pic of my magnets soon!)

Dior's new team has great fans! The gym may be smaller than others but it has the biggest cheering section. The gym was packed for the first game of the year... those are the best games to be at. We won the first two games of the new year!

Levice, Slovakia

Yes, we are in yet another new country! I always wondered if I'd regret not studying abroad in college.... looks like I made up for that!
Dior is playing on a team in Levice, Slovakia for the remainder of the season. This team actually plays in two different countries in one season, Czech Republic and Slovakia. Last season this team won the championship in the Slovakian league so they were promoted to the Czech league. Dior will play all the Czech games but if he has no game and the Slovakian team has a game then he also plays in the Slovak league. Very tricky.

I get to go to their game this Wednesday at home, which is great since we live within walking distance of the gym.  Also, all the games are streamed live on the internet in case you want to catch one. Levice Basketball
Click that link and on the main page scroll down.. on the right side in GREEN it will say live broadcast. The live broadcast isn't posted until gametime.


We went exploring the other day and checked out the cities castle. The castle is small but extremely awesome to see. Unbelievable that the castle was built in the 13th century and is still in good condition. Since its small I doubt it ever housed anyone important but after a little online research I think the castle was used by the cities guards. Hopefully I can check out the inside of the castle.

This is the picture I took.

This is a picture I found online.

Levice is not a big city so everywhere I need to go is within walking distance even the big grocery store.  We did a couple trips to the store this week and its similar to the one we had in Belgium! Yay!

Tesco- giant grocery store with other stuff (similar to Walmart!)

New Years Eve 2011 was our second in Europe and I must say Slovakia takes the cake on fireworks. We live in a tall building with a great view of the city so we were able to watch all the fireworks from our balcony. There were small fireworks going off all day but the big ones started at about 10 p.m. and didn't end until close to 2 a.m. I've never seen so many fireworks in my life... not even at Disneyland! I would like to post a pic of the awesome fireworks but I'd rather not show the internet world where I live. (my blog isn't private)

On a side note, Dior is finally wearing glasses after 10 years of contacts! He loves his glasses especially when he wakes up and just throws them on instead of having to go through the hassle of contacts. Thank you Tia Mago for convincing him to give his eyes a break!!

We wish you all the best in the new year!