12 Months in Hanoi: Happy Birthday Marine Corps! ... Oh

First and foremost, HAPPY HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! Cheers to you, your families and loved ones enjoying a very HAPPY Thanksgiving - I am thankful for all of YOU!

This is just wrong ...

I will celebrate the day with the amazing friends I've made here in Hanoi. Nat and I are getting started early with lots of cooking and Christmas decorating - complete with all of the Christmas movies we have in our arsenal (can't WAIT for National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation!). Dinner for 10, complete with turkey and cranberry sauce, stuffing, green bean casserole, corn casserole, mashed potatoes ... basically all of the carbs you'd normally find on a Thanksgiving table - yahoo! And all topped off with my Grandma's apple pie ... assuming, of course, I can figure out how to make a pie crust. Hmmmmm ... either way - will be a spectacular day!

Now, onto the ball ....

I'm a bit late on this post, but a little distance makes me appreciate just how much FUN we had at the 238th Marine Corps Ball in Hanoi.

What's our connection to the Marines in Hanoi? None prior to that evening. How did my party (2 Americans, 2 Brits, 1 Canadian, and 1 Russian) end up at the United States Marine Corps Ball? For me, Donna (the Canadian), and Natasha (the Russian), it was thanks to Nat and her UNIS connections - go time. Dar and Dames (the Brits) ended up there after International SOS (Damien's company) bought a table. Why were these companies/organizations invited to the Corps' birthday?

BECAUSE THERE ARE ONLY 6 MARINES STATIONED IN HANOI.

That's right. 6.

So (bless their hearts), they opened the Ball up to local businesses and organizations. I'll take it! I grew up in Annapolis, MD - home of the U.S. Naval Academy for chrissakes! - and never once made it to the Ring Dance or Marine Corps Ball. Invited to one in Hanoi?

Hellz yeah!

The ceremony itself was EXTREMELY moving. Check out the video they played:

http://youtu.be/GqZtwb5bf3I

Tears streaming down my face by the end. Not even kidding. I was that girl. Happily. They played the Star Spangled Banner and I lost it. Halls of Montezuma? Crying even harder. It was my little slice of American heaven and I loved every second of it. The keynote speaker (Brigadier General Simcox) came in from Hawaii and gave an extremely motivating speech and gave us all honorary Marine status for the event (complete with a hoo-rah cheer - I still have a sh*t eating grin on my face remembering it 3 weeks later!).

We danced, we laughed, enjoyed (a few) cocktails, and just had an absolute ... well, Ball!!!

Oh what a night ... enjoy the pics!