Note: I posted this on Facebook a few weeks ago. I’ll add it here for those who are not big Facebook fans.

For those who know me, I am an avid swimmer. I started at 3 years old and never stopped: summer swimming team, teaching private lessons and lifeguarding during my high school years, college competitive swimming and onward thereafter. In Laos, for my first day of classes, I introduce myself via a power point presentation. While I cater to each level, this slide is the one that remains a constant. The look on their faces, seeing a young Teacher Connie, is priceless.

Even at 60, I still get in my daily 2-hour workouts, no matter where I am in the world. Here in my hometown, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the adult 2-hour lap time early mornings, 6 – 8 a.m.

In fact, I started to gain a fan following. Before school started last week, public swimming lessons began at 8:30, usually while I was just finishing up my warm-down.

One of the grandparents, Chris Jones, brought her grand-daughters every morning for lessons and they’d watch me as I completed my work-outs. When it came to the last morning for public lessons, I received a surprise treat from the family. I was presented with a DQ (Dairy Queen) gift certificate for a small ice cream sundae!

Here are the visuals below. Chris kindly paused for a selfie with me, then I grabbed the grand-daughters for yet another photo. Harper, with dark hair, is on the left and Evelyn on the right. (I’m holding the certificate.)

A Similar Gift to My Laos Students

My Laos staff and students all know my favorite dessert in the entire world is ice cream. If you follow my stories, I did a full 2-week English lesson with my elementary ed students on visiting our nearby ice cream chain store, MiXue. The finale of that lesson was going to Mixue to order ice cream cones in English, which the Laos staff all spoke due to the foreigner-based clientele we have in my language center’s area of the city. (3 embassies are within walking distance).

And would you believe in Laos, we have Dairy Queen? It’s quite popular in the capital city I live in, Vientiane, but extremely pricey compared to other ice cream shops that are more local.

Dare I trust my USA Dairy Queen gift certificate would be usable in Laos? I wasn’t finding out.

I quickly headed off to my hometown’s DQ and put my gift to good use right away, as you can see below.

Comparison Prices to Laos

It had been many years since I had a DQ treat, and while I certainly enjoyed that trip down memory lane, I was a tad taken back by my goodie’s cost now-a-days: $3.59. Yikes! That certainly wasn’t what I paid growing up.

And just for fun, I looked up the current DQ prices for a small ice cream sundae in Laos: Only 15,000 Kip, which would be about 71 cents.

I guess when it comes to a trip down memory lane, looks like I’ll be tripping a lot more in Laos than in America.

In Closing

I have just one more week to go, then it’s back-to-school for me in Laos, my Southeast Asian home. Keep checking this space for more updates. There will be many to come, that’s for sure.