13 Months!

Thank goodness for technology. Nearly every day, twice a day, Huyen and I talk on skype video. The time difference between New Jersey and Hanoi works out great for us since Hanoi is eleven hours ahead of EST. When it's 10AM in Vietnam, it's 11PM here -- the perfect time for Huyen to say goodnight to me. When it's 11 pm in Vietnam, it's noon here -- the perfect time to say goodnight to Huyen.

Being far apart from someone you care about is obviously never easy. However, being able to see them and hear their voice every day makes it a lot easier...except on your monthly anniversay when you would give nearly anything to hug one another.

Happy thirteenth month anniversary, Huyen!

1st Annual West Hampton Jewish Under 32 Invitational Tennis Tournament

I have a confession to make. I never went to Vietnam. The truth is, I spent the last 15 months training in an undisclosed location for the 1st Annual West Hampton Jewish Under 32 Invitational Tennis Tournament.

The tournament was this past weekend and all my hard work and dedication paid off. I won the tennis tournament against Jed Tamarkin.

Being the winner is quite an honor despite the fact that there were only five people invited to the invitational...and two of the five weren't exactly tennis players. The tournament -- run by bracket master and third place winner Alex Bertsche -- was the final event on Jed's final weekend as a single man. Yes, I know what you're saying: "You beat Jed on his last weekend?" For a second I thought about letting Jed win...but then nailed an overhead slam right by him.

Since this blog is about Vietnam, I should make this post relevant: Tennis is very popular in Vietnam. There are actually lots of tennis courts in Hanoi but you generally need to have reserved them weeks ahead of time. While in 'Nam I played tennis twice. I won my first doubles match...thanks to my doubles partner Long who was way better than me. The second time I played we got rained out after about five minutes. That's one of the troubles of playing tennis in a country with a rainy season.