Teacher's Day - Ngày Nhà Giáo Việt Nam

Pictures, en masse, of my experience of the International Teacher's Day in Viet Nam. I had no idea that teachers were so well respected and that this holiday was so important in Viet Nam!

One of my ILA students who gave me a paper-craft card and shiny new pen.

Interestingly, this girl isn't actually my student. I gave her a level test back in September and she still remembered me for some reason. She gave me a cute hand-drawn card.

I got to sit in the VIP section for the Teacher's Day ceremony at the Phan Tay Ho middle school. This picture doesn't do justice to the size of the student audience. Note the kids sitting on the second floor. There is an additional floor above that with more students and even more students in the back of the school.

I stuck around to get pictures of the stage. I hadn't actually noticed the girls in front of me while I was doing this, but apparently they noticed me. They promptly ran over...

...and it turns out they were some of the girls in my best class. In Viet Nam, the middle school goes from th to 9th grade. These girls are in the fourth 9th grade class in Phan Tay Ho. All incredibly bright and highly motivated students.

Hanging out with the beautiful teachers of the school. The two women in the blue "áo dài" also teach English, and the woman in the purple one teaches math.

Gifts from the wonderful students of Viet Nam!

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Chinese Chess - Cờ Tướng - 象棋

The latest interest I've taken in my quest to learn more about my Vietnamese heritage is the game of Chinese chess. It is a bit ironic to look for Vietnamese culture in a game that has the word "Chinese" in its name, but I found that it is only so for the sake of translation. I have taken to this game for a number of reasons. 1. The game has cool historical references that have survived even today. Let's start with the board itself. Unlike a chess board, which is played on the squares, Chinese chess is played on the intersections of lines. What is most recognizably different from normal chess boards, however, is the large gap in the middle of the board as well as the lines that form an "x" on opposites sides of the board. The square that contains the "x" is known as the "fortress," or 宮(gōng ) in Chinese. The center divider is the river where s ome Chinese words are visible. The words on the left say, 楚河 (chǔ hé ) , mean...

As a person who's done a fair amount of traveling, I couldn't agree more with this:

Paradise Falls wouldn't even hold a candle to this place.

Waiting and Waiting

March 1st. Now every day for the next two weeks will be agonizing torture. Have I been accepted? Have I been rejected? Will my career advance? Will I be right back where I was this time last year? I've been told to be patient, keep my head up, to not worry about things that aren't in my control. That's tough going, but I'm trying. How apt, then, that I'd come across this quote again: “I wanted you to see what real courage is...It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.” I thought my chances were small in the beginning, but I did see it through. Now back to waiting to see if this time is my "sometime."

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