We were supposed to meet at 8:00AM on July 31 at the corner of "Nga Sau", in a restaurant called "Pho Tuong Lai".  There would be a total of 10 of us to go on a trip.  One family is from France, another family from Canada, and mine from the U.S.   The fathers were used to be Minh Vien students. 

My son and I were early, as I always like to be, to avoid making people wait.  Half an hour early, in fact.  I thought maybe I had time to see what Minh Vien was like and also took some pictures.  I asked my son to stay in the restaurant, then walked down the street and looked for Minh Vien. 

Block after block and about 20 minutes later, I could not find it and walked back.  My friends' families were already in the restaurant and started their Pho noodle soup.  It was the first time I met Hong, who I had emailed with many times.  I introduced myself and asked "Hey, where is Minh Vien?"  He pointed to the street corner one block from Nga Sau and said "Over there."  I could not believe my eyes.  "Over there?" I asked.  "Yeah, over there, very different now." .