helping Quito's 6th volume of PechaKucha!

The PechaKucha organizer in Quito, Ecuador has a pretty awesome idea... and is asking for the help of PK organizers around the world.

Their poster for their upcoming PechaKucha Night includes directions on how to fold it into a paper airplane.

PK organizers from cities around the world are supposed to make the airplane with the poster... and send photos of themselves in their city with Quito's Vol. 6 poster flying around the world.

Very. Cool.   : )

Below are a bunch of the photos that Jen helped me take...

But then I also figured that since our Vol. 3 event was coming up, we could integrate it there and help out Quito from one PKN to another PKN. So during the mid-way break last Thursday evening during HCMC's 3rd PechaKucha Night, each of the 70+ attendees made their own paper airplane with a Quito poster... we then made a toast to HCMC, to PechaKucha, and to Quito... counted down from 3... and let them fly!!

I will hopefully receive photos from that soon... my friend Donna was kind enough to photograph the night. When I do... I will post those as well.   : )  It was a lot of fun. ...Shout-out for Quito's creativity!

Starting the morning at Paris Baguette on Hai Ba Trung...

In front of Notre Dame Cathedral...

Haha... one of my favorites...

In front of the People's Committee Building...

I am MONSTER-SIZE in this country...

pretty People's Committee building

I pulled over to take the following photos when driving past the People's Committee Building on Ly Tu Trong Street. It was just late enough in the afternoon that the lights on the building were showing and the sky was still light but the sun was beginning to set for the evening...

Paris Baguette's iced tea... WIN!

Paris Baguette definitely hits 'Success!' in my book with its new packaging for their 4 lovely iced tea flavors... below is one that I got... delicious AND gorgeous...

Strada at Bitexco

Elizabeth, Vince, Donna, and I decided to go to the Strada restaurant on the 51st floor of the Bitexco Tower (the tallest building in HCMC) as an end-of-the-year-it's-the-weekend treat.

The view was awesome:

Vince, Elizabeth, and Donna

We wanted a lovely treat... but the entire experience ended up frustrating, as the service was terrible. Really terrible. This isn't somewhere I'd go back to anytime soon... but here's to hoping they are still training staff, as the place is still new-ish.

some neighborhood favorites...

Some of my neighborhood favorites that I've taken recently:

LOVE this guy.

After kindly allowing me to take his photo...

...he wanted to trade me... my scooter for his cyclo! Haha

Happy Birthday to Vince!

I'm a bit behind... Vince's birthday was a few weeks ago... but it was a great evening out with good company and good food. Vince is a great friend and it was pretty awesome of his wife, Elizabeth, to set up a surprise dinner for him at The Refinery! He was very surprised and we ended up staying about 3 hours... talking and laughing.   : )

 Ha! Vince being Vince...

Happy birthday Old Man!   :D

school concert rehearsal

A few weeks ago our school had a spring concert / musical.

Showing up to the theatre in the morning:

Hanging out in the balcony until it's time to practice their songs: