My Kitty Mickey Class (that's really what it's called)

I took pictures of all of the students in my new youngest class. I only see them on Saturdays so I have a hard time remembering their names. Erica and I often talk about with frustration how our students are programmed to listen to a CD. They don't readily listen to my voice, but I press 'play,' and I have all of their attention immediately. It drives me crazy (This class is no exception).

Students in Vietnam are also programmed to be tested. Were we tested when we were little?? I don't remember that! But my students bring me their work, and I originally thought it was just to show me, but they were expecting me to grade it. It's simple sentances and a drawing. I give everyone a 10 (highest grade) and a check and a smiley face. I mean, I had no idea how to grade, but they're five and six years old! The goal is for them to learn English right? Who cares about the grades (not a sentiment shared by many)?

I really do like this class more and more each week. After the first class, I actually counted how many more days I would have them. Last week I read a book to them, and they (who were paying attention) were riveted. For not understanding what the story was about, they were surprisingly glued. I even stood up and jumped for emphasis and they all yelled at me to sit down because they couldn't see (I translated that myself). They still hand feed me (from their germy hands) candy and chips they want to share, and giggle and hug me whenever they see me.

9 Days until Christmas

It is Wednesday, December the 16th here and it blows my mind. How did this happen? Maybe it's because it's so hot here that we didn't notice Christmas sneaking up. Maybe it's because we've been busy. Maybe it's because we don't have a tree and haven't bought any gifts, and that's why Christmas is all of a sudden UPON US!

No time to blog or journal: a situation that needs to be remedied. For now, I was walking down the street the other day and some people were chopping up a tree and shredding it. I asked what it was and they it was a papaya tree. Apparently, they use all of it for something, maybe juice, I don't remember what they said. As is usual when I say "What is that?" in Vietnamese, they assume that I know Vietnamese (which I love and wouldn't want to change) and wanted to ask me every question I could answer. Even though I barely understand a word when they ramble, I just stick with the answers I know: "country America," "24," "husband, not yet," "teacher, language English, Binh Phu Street."

I asked Erica to take out her camera to take a picture of them, and the girl jumped up to be in the picture with me. I haven't seen her since. But I like her.

My friend Yem

This is Chi (prefix for older female) Yem (sounds like eeem). I love her. She and her parents have a juice shop on our walk home from school. She speaks very little English, but for some reason we communicate with each other very well. I love her voice and I think she's so beautiful.

I've talked about Yem and her parents before and they are so generous with us. They will just sit and talk with us, though usually they bring out some fruit or some ice tea. This particular night, she brought out what i think is sweet coconut milk with soybeans and raisins in it. I think she was explaining to me that it would good to eat before bed, but if I eat too much, i will be very fat.

I didn't know how to ask them to say hello to the people who read my blog, so I asked her to say hello to my mom and dad. I think she got stage fright because she's speaking a mixture of Vietnamese and the few English words that she knows.

Mũi Nè

Photo's courtesy of Lance and Kristen Baker and Erica Palmer.

Vietnam Thanksgiving 2009

Welcome to Thanksgiving in Vietnam 2009. Here I am the night before as Erica and I created Indian and Pilgrim attire and names for the other members of our team. In order to make them fit other normal head-sized people, I had to make them too small to fit my head, and too big for Erica's.

I made the pilgrim hat for Lance a little lopsided. I thought I was going to have to bribe people to wear them, but they all wore them for like three hours or more without complaining. That made me so happy. Even Suz. She might not look happy about it, but she accepted her role as Chief very readily.The team was supposed to go to a restuarant that night to eat, but because there were so many differing arrival times, the task fell on the HCMC team (Erica and Carolyn) to find a place to eat in our city. We decided on OUR APARTMENT.I tried to act like it was no big deal, but inside I was SO PLEASED. How sweet to help prepare Thanksgiving dinner in Vietnam. We had to borrow plates and forks, and Nikki bought glasses for us to have. And everyone squeezed together and had a place to sit. We had stuffing, sweet potatoes, a big salad (we have 3 vegetarians on our team) and some roasted duck and gravy. Fine, fine, I bought the duck already cooked, but I mixed it with a little pork and onions.Steph and Brittany brought rolls and sparkling apple cider, which when opened, almost killed me. Everything seemed appropriate, just like the first Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for.Sure Steph looks disguested, and she only has salad and a roll on her plate, but she liked it.It was really fun being back with everyone. All of these people that I really only knew for one month for training are now part of my family.We left to catch a bus to take us to District one to catch another bus.And I almost single handedly ruined everything due to my eternal bus optimism. "It'll come guys! Don't worry. Five more minutes."

We got a couple of taxis before it was too late and caught our bus to Mũi Nè. I sat shotgun with the driver and tried to talk with him for the five hours it took. After we stopped to go to the bathrooms, he bought me a bánh bao (sweet bread with meat and quail eggs in it) and offered me candy and water and a toothpick and a cloth to wash up. He also asked for my phone number, but unfortunately I don't know it...

Happy Buy Myself Flowers Day to you again!

Here are Monday's flowers, which have opened up more and smell really great. In honor of this day (the 7th of every month, in case you've forgotten), I am looking back two more times in the past couple of weeks that I have received flowers in odd situations.

We were told over and over that we would get lots of presents for Teachers' Day. And since it was this special day, they canceled classes. So we didn't see any students. And we didn't get any presents. We were disappointed. Then one of my level one students made this for me a few days later and salvaged it. I was so shocked that I couldn't remember the student's name and I blanked in front of all of the other teachers. Fortunately, I think it just looked like I was so in awe that I was speechless.

Sunday night we attended our first Vietnamese wedding. More on that later. Our friend who invited us had one of the caterers bring Erica and I the roses off one of the tables. Then she said something else to them and they brought the bride's bouquet over and she handed it to me.

I pushed the bouquet back towards her and tried to explain that I couldn't take it. She kept pushing it towards me, so I finally relented (you might not believe it, but I really was trying to NOT take it). So, I carried it around for the rest of the night, so awkwardly, trying to hide what I felt like I was STEALING from a party that I wasn't even invited to. As if I didn't stand out enough by having one of the two blonde heads in a room of hundreds...