I needed to share this

Last night I ended one of my favorite classes. I think I've talked about them before. They are chock-full of personality, which makes teaching them hilarious and challenging. They can make any game work, or they can ruin any lesson that they don't deem worth their time. If they knew how much power they had, I would be in big trouble.

Last night I gave them Chick-fil-A hats that Tara gave me. They loved them. Before that we played a game. The "Reaction Game," the students are supposed to write situations on a card and then we bring them up and people must act out their reactions while everyone else guesses the situation.

For example, You see a hurricane. The student must act how they might act if they saw a hurricane. As a class, we went over a bunch of examples, winning the lottery, getting bitten by a shark, I was excited about the potential of this game with this class.

I knew there was way too much laughter while they were writing them, but when I received everyone's slip of paper here is what they said:

• Kevin went to be at the hospital
• Kevin wears a pregnant dress
• everyone see Kevin kiss an old woman
• I see Kevin hit police
• You see Kevin play dolls
• Kevin has a diamond
• You see an accident
• Violet wearing a pregnant dress. I hate Violet.
• Kevin has a baby
• Kevin falls in love with old woman
• Kevin wears a dress
• I see Kevin marry with Nancy
• You meet a Korean popstar
• Kevin pees in the class
• Kevin hangs out without clothes
• Kevin dies in the toilet

I was slightly horrified, and I looked over at Kevin who was laughing. I asked him if he thinks it is funny and he said, "Don't worry, I don't shy." They wanted to act out each one with sputtering and choking at the thought of seeing Kevin having a baby (I have no idea how Kevin became the butt of all the jokes). I added my own slips of paper and we played the game for a little while. Good grief. I'm going to miss them.

Steph and Brittany

Our friends Steph and Brittany are the first of us to fly home from 'Nam. They are actually in the air as we speak (well, as I speak, maybe not as you read).

So, in their honor, here are some pictures from their last visit.

They came to HCMC to go shopping and we were HOT and cranky. So we went for pizza! Steph and I split a huge pizza. And it was big. The napkin was supposed to be a reference point of how big the pizza was.

Brittany and Erica were not told about this picture. This was another reference of how big our pizza was compared to their puny personal-pan pizzas.I told Steph that her mask was cool. She said, "Yeah, but it's a little small," and this is the face that she made to demonstrate. We all agreed that she looked like the vulture on Robin Hood-- Nutsy or Trigger, I can't remember which one...

We're pr@ying for safe flights for our sisters, and a wonderful time at home... before coming back.

EVERYONE on team Vietnam will be returning in August. Oh my, is that the first time I've said it? I am planning on coming back to Ho Chi Minh in August. One year is not enough.

Long blog with words and no pictures

I just stopped by Yem's juice shop and sat with them as they watched the end of a Korean movie. I ate some banana and sweet potato mush (that was actually really really good) and got some strawberry juice for the way home. My first sip made me involuntarily utter, "holy cow that is wonderful," and I wanted to blog.

I wrote that last week.

This week just ended (or next week is beginning, depending on where Sunday falls in the songs you sing). I am coughing from the fizz of my (non-alcoholic) ginger beer. I imagine that it will make my stomach feel better, but it won't. I drink it anyway and I like it.

I burp really loudly, forgetting that our door is open and our neighbors can hear, and when our neighbors walk by, I act like I'm disgusted at my roommate in another room (though she's not actually here). One of the children in a nearby apartment has shoes that make a loud squeaking sound with every step(--by design, these shoes are very popular here). She can't be more than two, and she always comes to the door and shyly waves at me when she's waiting on the elevator, and today is no exception. Goodness, she makes me smile!

Last week, Erica and I joined a few other teachers in giving Caimbridge tests at local primary schools to (a bazillion) 7-11 year olds. It was fun, and tiring. I'm not sure that those tests should be given on such a large scale for such a long period of time. We only gave the tests for a little over three hours a day, but that was excessive.

For three hours I said:

"And what is this?" "Good!"

"What is this?" "A table."

"Point to the table." "Good!"

"How many chairs?" "Two, very good!"

...And very little else.

It was actually how I pictured that teaching in Vietnam would be. Beautiful, rustic, open air schools with plants hanging from the balconies. Fans giving me my only relief from the heat, cooling my sweat soaked shirt. Smelly, uniformed kids with beautiful curious, dark eyes (and some with cavities and strange rashes), waving at me excitedly, then suddenly terrified upon entering my presence and unable to speak.

Some students answered me in Vietnamese. Some just repeated what I said, "What is this." Some looked on the verge of tears. And some, sweaty from their break, dripped sweat on my papers and made them wrinkle. I was always put in the seat near the window so that everyone could see that there was a foreign teacher. I'm glad it's over, but I really really liked it.

So my point in saying all of this is that I fulfilled my hourly teaching limit for the week early. I was gone for five hours in the morning, came home, planned my lessons, then five hours in the evening every day, after meeting my friend Oanh to study together. It was EXHAUSTING. So I was finished by Friday morning and in the afternoon I left for a women's retreat with my fellowship!

This is a long blog. Are you still with me? My main goal was to make some more friends in the fellowship, and I definitely feel more connected now. Mission Accomplished, and then some. And thanks to friends who are much smarter than me, I have a much better understanding of some of these women, and more respect for what they do (that I should have had all along).

I'm still processing the retreat and what I learned and how I am supposed to apply that to my life. I'm also busy trying to ignore the fact that we must disassemble our lives soon and move again.

(pardon me while I kill a roach)

I'm back... Saying goodbyes, saying hellos. Reading the totally convicting (and totally hilarious) Prayer and the Art of Volkswagon Maintenance by Donald Miller. A couple of other issues in my life that are not blogable.

Emotionally, I'm a rock( at least about Vietnam). Spiritually, I'm pensive, stubborn, longing for betterment, but unsure which parts to prune. Physically, I have been better. Two weeks left and I want to live every day, not counting the hours, like I do on bad stomach days like today.

I would like to end with some quality quotes from the week (to reward those of you who made it to the end):

"If we cannot poop right, there is no joy." -Nancy, from the Women's retreat

"I'll beat you right now." -Phượng, when I dropped her shirt on the wet floor in the bathroom.

"I'm fine thankyou and you?" -about 75% of the students I tested when I asked, "How old are you?"

"I know you from American by your face." -student I tested

"To the most unAmerican American I've ever met." -letter addressed to me from my very cool South African roommate at the retreat.

"No one wants to leave." -Chris (my student), after the bell rang when we were still playing a game. A quote that I wrote down and will reread every day if necessary.

"If Kevin pees in his pants, his underwear will be wet. And if his underwear is wet, then his prince will be cold. -Simon (my student) during an IF/THEN lesson.

"Prince?" -me

"You know! Girl, princess. Boy, prince!" -Simon

Only 2 more Micky Classes

This video is from last week. Lee, who is on the left in the very beginning, is a new student and I just asked Michael to help him (that makes 22 students now, but who's counting, really...). I just went around and filmed the class and when I returned, Michael was doing Lee's work for him.




I only have two more classes with these kids. That is only four hours. And they could possibly be the longest four hours that I have left here. But they are also some of the best. Each new grading period, I am outwardly in disbelief that i STILL have this class, but inwardly I am so pleased.

I am actually getting to know them, and know how to deal with them, and know who is the bully, the bullied, the teacher's pet, the shy one, on and on. I kind of feel like a parent. That is, if I could give birth to 22 children and only have to deal with all of their problems for 2 hours every week...
This morning, I was greeted by Michael, Calvin, and Luke hiding under my desk. I have learned John's handwriting very well. He will do all of his friends' work for them so they can play with whatever toy he has brought. And if I take the toy, he will try to distract me and get someone to look for his toy on the desk. We have had some "encounters."
Kate doesn't smile enough. I didn't even notice that she lost her two front teeth. Peter and John #2. This is from last week and the power went out several times and each time it went completely dark (no windows). Everyone would scream and kids tackled each other. No lights? That's allright. No air conditioning? Oh my, that is a problem.

Jack

This is Jack. He's a cutie pie in my class of 12 year olds. He always wants to talk to me and impress me, but his English is one of the worst in the class.

I left the room during break last night, and when I came back, someone had spilled a drink. He wanted to tell me what happened, but he couldn't get the words out. So this is what he did (well, this is the reenactment of what he did):

Hột Vịt Lộn

Our landlady's birthday was on Cindo de Mayo. They prepared a big meal that I didn't know about, invited me, and then rushed to have the dinner during the hour that I had before class.

We all sat on the floor and ate clams, oysters, grilled shrimp, and hotpot (soup, which is still cooking on a gas stove in front of you). It was all delicious. I could hear them all talking about whether or not I can eat these fertilized duck eggs. I just smiled.

During the course of the meal, it came up again. And I just decided that these questions are always going to come up until I have an answer. So I picked up the egg and cracked it on the floor (it's a duck egg that was boiled just shortly before it might have hatched). Phượng handed me a spoon and said, "Don't thinking, just eating."

It really wasn't half bad! It really is the looks that get you, because you can see the beginnings of the baby feathers (I hope I don't lose readers from this post). You can dip it in a salt, pepper, and lime mixture, and you would never know what you're eating.

Very intense picture. Everyone watching me eat was a little uncomfortable, but it would have been worse if it had made me sick.

Tissue= toilet paper

Today, Phượng knew that I was at the bank in District 1, so she said she would come pick me up and take me home. We just had to make one stop to pick up some tissue.

Apparently, in the near future, the price of toilet paper will be going up, so her husband made a tall order. We pulled up on her motorbike and I saw the boxes and I thought, "No way." And my dad is an engineer; I feel like I'm pretty optimistic about space, but where was it going to go, in my lap?

Also, Phượng had forgotten her bungees because she didn't know it would be so much. But, to make the story kind of anticlimactic, we unloaded one of the boxes and shoved some between her legs and into the 2nd box, and it was really no problem at all.

I'm actually kind of disappointed in the picture because it felt like we had a lot more than that. And my arms were kind of sore, but that's probably because they're wasting away to nothing as I lift nothing but a pen and chopsticks. But it was so much fun and we giggled the whole way home.

Adorable cousins

Phượng's husband has some super cute cousins. It seemed that each night, around 11 or midnight, they would hang out at a shop and eat soup and drink beer and watch soccer. I got dropped off with them one night by myself (that's when I ate dog) and found that one of the boys speaks English really well.

This is Dô Na (like Maradona, he told me), one of three adorable brothers, whose names all begin with Dô. He is the one who speaks really well. We had some fun playing cards with him, and then tried to teach him how to shuffle. One time while he was talking, he couldn't think of a word, and he looked at me and said it in Vietnamese. I thought for a second and then remembered the word in English and told him. I said it really casually, but inside, I was dancing a samba. I was already ecstatic that he would even ask me, but when I pulled out the word so smoothly, I could barely contain myself. It made my day.

Vũng Tàu #2

It was a four day weekend for us as we celebrated April 30th (35th anniversary of the Americans leaving Vietnam) and May 1st (Labor Day). It was a weekend of FIRSTS, and not just for me!

*First time at Vũng Tàu Beach for Erica and myself, but I guess that one's a given...

*Jenny's first family trip to the beach. She has been alive one week longer than we have been in Vietnam. Boy, she was popular. And so darn cute.

* My first time eating dog. I had soup with bamboo and dog meat. Don't judge me. This dog did not have an owner or a name, and it was mean to small helpless animals, and barked all night long outside your window. And it was tasty.

*Our first time watching a fight in 'Nam (somebody got ripped off at the beach), sucking a snail right out of the shell, attending a Death Anniversary Party, sitting on a bed while a 91 year old woman sits on the floor.

* Phượng's first sleepover with us. woot woot. I showed her what a pillow fight is, and it was very one-sided

*My first time being stung by a jellyfish. It was totally as painful and everyone made it sound. In the South China sea too... does that make it a vietnamese jellyfish, or a chinese one... I guess they're international..
*Chị Hồng's first time at the beach, or seeing the sea. Ever. She didn't know how to swim, and didn't know to jump when the waves were coming. I got to hold her hand for a while and watch her choke and spit and laugh like a child. It was awesome!





*Oh, and I forgot to mention, my first time swimming at the beach in jeans. People just go in their clothes. And it was great! I couldn't swim very fast, and when I lost in a race, i tried to explain that my jeans were a heavy, loose, parachute, but they didn't understand. I need to improve my vocabulary.

*Also, my first time being cold in Vietnam. Riding on the back of a motorbike in soaking wet clothes.

*Our first time running out of gas on a motorbike. Well maybe not Phượng's, but mine. Her cousin-in-law brought the smallest gas can in the world to help her make it to the pump. Motorbikes rock.
*And last of all, my favorite. We rode three on a motorbike frequently (totally against the law, BAs), but one night (for my first time), we got four. AND I was comfortable. We didn't get a picture of that, but it will forever be burned in my memory.

Vũng Tàu #1

Erica and I went to Vũng Tàu beach with our friend Phượng and her in-laws. We stayed at her mother-in-law's house and they treated us better than family. Actually there were relatives EVERYWHERE. They would come and go, more would flood in, we lost track of who was related to who, and who was just a friend who happened to be visiting that day... (I felt like I was at the Carlson's, no kidding. it was beautiful). (some of the women walking back from the 'Death Anniversary Party')(Some of the men in the family drinking beer at the 'Death Anniversary Party.')(Some of Phượng's husband's family)(Trinh and Phuong with their mother's grandmother, who is 91 and sits indian style)(I have no idea who they are)
(Ok, the last couple is not related at all. They just came uup to me at the beach and asked for me to take their picture. Then they walked off.)

Conference continued...

So the girls in the south boarded a plane for Dà Nẳng and Dawn met us and squeezed us into a taxi to Hội An. We stayed there for two nights and met with each other and just enjoyed each other's company during the day, exploring. Definitely a tourist town, the shops were so European and cool, selling sizes that actually fit us!

We later went back to Dà Nẳng and had a great meal with some people from the international fellowship there. I went home with Liz and Suz and spent the night on Liz's bed. They're hilarious, and I loved being with them. The next morning, we had real doughnuts and went to the beach with Steph, Kristen, and Lance, and that was awesome. I knew it would be awesome because I forgot my camera. I also forgot to bring my camera when Brittany and I walked Dawn's dog over a beautiful bridge in Dà Nẳng at sunset...

There are actuually 11 people in our group, but you wouldn't know it from my pictures. Sorry about that. Here they are, in no particular order. They were beautiful cities, and I shall go back some day.