Party with Students!

One of my favorite classes ended a while ago, but they still like to hang out, or at least the girls in the class do. They were one of my first classes last year so I've known them for a while now. They're always up for any kind of get together.

They came over for Christmas Eve, but this time we were celebrating the birthdays of two of the girls, Selena and Gloria. I took them up on the roof for the sunset and they loved it.

While I was preparing dinner, our little neighbor came over for a visit.After the pasta, broccoli, shrimp, and alfredo sauce--which they liked, surprisingly!-- I gave them my gift: temporary tattoos. We all got several.

Selena and Gloria cut their cake, which was coconut and chocolate. The best cake I've ever had in Asia.There was some singing and candle blowing And, of course, a cake fight broke out These girls are so much fun. The video at the bottom is them at their best. They are such a tight class and they cheat on placement tests so they'll always stay together... good friends I suppose.

I honestly don't feel very tall until I take pictures with young girls. Then I hover.

This is Selena serving some spaghetti sauce to anyone who wanted some to go on top. She told them English only. She's hilarious.

culture shock

So, it's almost the beginning of the next Lunar New Year. Yesterday was my last day of work for 2 weeks and the craziness, which has been in preparation for some time, is in full swing.


Because I'm an idiot, and planning to have my students over for dinner tonight, I had to go to the grocery store. Most everything closes down for at least a few days, so people are scrambling to be prepared with groceries, gifts, money, anything they might need on hand. It's like preparing for a tornado.


And going to the grocery store today-- which I regret-- was like the day before a "chance of snow" in Griffin. And at the risk of over-using comparisons, it was like going to Walmart on Christmas Eve, only with way way way smaller isles. SO... add that on to the culture shock that I am having, and it's lucky that I didn't go on a ramming spree with my little basket.

You have to understand the situation first. Everywhere I go, people stare at me. They nudge their buddies, they shout "hello!" or "what your name?" or the occasional "f*** you!" assumingly because they heard it on t.v. Everyone's reactons differ. Sometmes I get lenghty interviews, or they go on about my Vietnamese. Usually they just want to help the poor foreigner, but what they don't realize is that they are insulting my intelligence. I have had patience. But it's been a year and a half of being treated like an invalid.

I parked my bike and the security guard only used hand motions with me. Please speak, I said, in Vietnamese. But he smiled and waved a 2,ooovnd bill so I'd know the price for parking. Then he held up two fingers, in case he hadn't made himself clear. I already know the price. I would also have understood if he had said real words to me.

I was looking for the best little clump of parsley and an old woman came up next to me with a plastic bag and showed me that the vegetables are supposed to go in a bag to be weighed. I conjured up a smile, nodded my thanks, and muttered under my breath: "Not my first time at a grocery store, lady."

Kids ran past me and stopped to show their dismay at seeing me. Covering their mouths and giggling, they ran off. One man comes over and I hear him tell his son to ask me where I'm from. A nervous boy in stuttering English manages a, "What country you from?" "America," I answer. He runs back to his dad and relays the information. Everyone who passes me stares intnetly into my basket.

The isles are so crowded, and I think it's a cultural thing to push. There are so many people here today and I think my patience is thinning quicker because of it. A girl cuts in front of me in line because she has fewer items than me. I thought there was a chance that she didn't know that the foreigner she just cut off is undergoing full-fledged culture shock. So I decided not to blame the entire country for her behavior.

Finally, my turn to check out. The boy behind the register nervously types the price on a calculator and hands it to me. I wanted to scream, "PLEASE JUST SAY IT TO ME!" I take my receipt as everyone stares. I've been having all of these thoughts, but in the half hour I've been in here, I've said one word.

I hand the security guard my number, trying to show him that I've done this dozens of times and he doesn't need to give me the step-by-step. It's sprinking a little and he points to the sky and slowly and loudly says, "MUA!" the word for rain. Granted, it's possible that my Vietnamese has actually gotten worse this year, but people talk about the weather more than they ask me if I'm married (and that's a lot). Yeah, I said, with a sort of-grin. Mua.

You're probably waiting to hear about me screaming and then ramming my bike into the man who mimed eating corn to try to sell it to me next. But I didn't. That story would be much more fun to tell. Instead, I calmly told him in English that I didn't understand his hand signals, but if he was selling harmonicas, I might be interested.

Then I rode my bike home and Jenni told me that we got our salaries early-more than a minor miracle. I made dinner and my students came over for a double birthday party and we had a blast. So it was a great day.

Wedding

Jenni and I were invited to the wedding of one of our colleagues. It was pretty fun. But he was glad that we came and that made it all worth it.

First Vietnamese guy I've ever seen in flannel and suspenders playing a sax.

Food food food food food food food food. Seriously 8 courses. Normal Vietnamese wedding.Decorated beautifully. Lots of people. One table actually labeled "Foreigners," but we didn't sit there. We sat at our school's table. Though I think as a general rule, I'm going to avoid sitting at tables labeled as such (not that they need to label us).

There was some singing and dancing.

On our way outside, one man asked me, "How do you feel about the wedding?" That's a common question and I must say, after a year and a half, I have no idea how I'm supposed to answer that.

Here we are with the bride and groom. Jenni is closer to the groom than me. He's a new teacher this year and very friendly.And here's the unhappy duck on the bus to the wedding This guy got up and sang, "Only You."

I missed the first line, but I got the rest of the song. Excellent.

Bicycles

I forgot to mention that we bought bikes back in the beginning of December. They are lifechanging. The world is now a little bit smaller. I can ride my bike to the post office, to the store, to school, to eat dinner. It's beautiful, really.

I also have to mention that riding a bike in this city is SO exciting--though I would like to add: safe... You have to pay attention all of the time, keeps you on your toes. I think I have a slow leak on the front tire, but I have no regrets. Best million I've ever spent.

THANKS

Thanks to everyone who sends letters, packages, and takes the time to skype with me! I appreciate it more than you know.

Wren, Helen, Luke, James Michael Katie and Anna




Francois
Trey and Tara

Baby Tori

Then Trey sneezed
Tori doesn't like sneezing

Mom and Dad

Memorize IV

(sunrise from Janell's apartment... so cool)

Ephesians 6:10-13

"Finally be strong in the L*rd and in the strength of Hig might."

"Put on the whole armor of G()d that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil."

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spirit*al forces of evil in the heavnly places."

"Therefore take up the whole armor of G()d, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm."

Roommate January

Reasons I am thankful for my roommate Jenni

• I believe I mentioned last month how easy Jenni is to buy for. I didn't really elaborate. She's easy to buy for because she's not picky, she's happy with just about anything (that's why she lives with me), and she's pretty predictable. It turns out that she's also really good at GIVING gifts. I wasn't even expecting anything from her for Christmas and she got me some great headphones, which I had been needing, a beautiful necklace, some candles and a card. Well done, Jenni


• Jenni doesn't eat the bottom of the cereal box. You know, the crumbs and the sugar (it's weird that she doesn't eat the extra sugar)? Well I really like that part.


• Jenni has so much energy. And no routine that is set in stone. She can do just about anything at anytime, if that's what is required of her. Especially if it's to help someone.


• I'm forgetting which pictures I've used before. This one is from conference in November. Above, is us with Oanh one day that she came to make lunch for us. And in the top picture we are with some of the girls from Biên Hoà and I'm trying (unsuccessfully) to make baby Jenny smile for the picture
• I only recently got my camera fixed, but before that, Jenni was letting me use her camera for months! I am so thankful for that!

pictures from VT

Vũng Tàu with Hong

I don't know how I was fortunate enough to get an invitation to go to the beach with Hong, but it was fantastic. She had a friend who offered an apartment for us to stay at for free. THEN, she had a friend from school who wanted to drive us there with his wife and daughter in their car (not quite as common in Vietnam as in America) and hang out at the beach with us for a while.
We had a fantastic time. We rested and took pictures. Played some frisbee and rested some more. Had some great food, rested, talked to a monkey, saved a horseshoe crab, took a boat home, and started (though never finished) popping some bubble wrap. Then we both took a nap.

A perfect escape. And I prolonged my vacation by spending the night with Janell and she made us delicious oatmeal pancakes. I love oatmeal pancakes.
Hong is just great. Wow, that is an understatement. She is a good friend of Janell who I met last year. She is now living in New York getting her PHD and not appreciating the snow as much as I would (ok that's a lie because I wouldn't know how to survive in the weather they've been having).

Besides being a huge blessing to me, a gifted translator and frisbee player, friendly to everyone, etc etc, Hong is also extremely hilarious. We had a great time.

Some favs

Let's highlight a few of my favorite students (right, right, teachers say they don't have em)...

These 3 boys are the most disobedient in my class probably. Sam, in front, constantly pulls on me, screams in my face, and disobeys what I ask him to do.
To his left, Benny only draws cars in my class. He does nothing else.
Huy, behind them, doesn't speak. English or Vietnamese. Or nothing that I've heard.
But gosh, I love them so.


I like these two boys a lot too. also, the worst in my class, they come in late, talk while I'm talking, and cheat during games. Here Sam is drawing a Harry Potter Lightning bolt on Owen's head. A lot of character in this class. I'll miss them when we finish next week.


These boys are from a class that I really love. I had them last year and they really know how to make me crazy and then make me love them so much I can never be mad long. Here is Simon, John, Jason, David (and Michael's back there somewhere) in an extra classroom where they go before class. They hook up a huge fan and turn it on full blast. This year, during class, as soon as it is 7:00, someone shouts and they all get out of their seats and go around shaking hands with each other. The first time it happened, I must have looked confused and Simon turned to me and said, "Teacher, we're very friendly."
These girls aren't the worst in my class, but I like them anyway (despite the pattern that you've been reading). In fact, I love them. I think I have a thing for level 6 classes, because I have ye to find one that I don't like. Lucy, Bell, Buf, and Mic are really really smart and they came over the other day for some Vietnamese monopoly. Good times.

An ANNOUNCEMENT

I GOT MY CAMERA FIXED!! WHOO!

So, in celebration of my 300,000vnd, that I deem well-spent, I went to district one of Ho Chi Minh City to spend a few hours, maybe buy some gifts to send home. After my first trip to the atm, I discovered that I hadn't received my salary yet (and we have as of 3pmish today); my balloon a little deflated. However, I now had nothing to do there but take pictures. How appropriate.

Also appropriately there were a lot of things to take pictures of.

First, a robot (a guy dressed as a robot) was walking down the street. I ran into him twice.Then there were ninjas in front of my bank advertising diapers.And here are some pictures of Christmas and New Years lights that I've wanted to get. I'm actually kind of proud of how some of them turned out. I mean, I took dozens, but the fact that any of them turned out ok is a wonderful way to rekindle my relationship with my camera.

I am so pleased to have my camera back and functioning.