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 The game has cool historical references that have survived even today.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...

It's official!

"Within the first nine months of 2015, zero cases of corruption were found in this city!" "...but we're not saying that corruption doesn't exist, just that none of our inspectors caught anyone." Are you kidding me? Thank you for the freaking clarification, Ms. Nga.

It's Been a Long Time

....and what better way to start again than with a quote and fuzzy feelings. “To see life; to see the world; to eyewitness great events; to watch the faces of the poor and the gestures of the proud; to see strange things — machines, armies, multitudes, shadows in the jungle and on the moon; to see man’s work — his paintings, towers and discoveries; to see things thousands of miles away, things hidden behind walls and within rooms, things dangerous to come to; the women that men love and many children; to see and to take pleasure in seeing; to see and be amazed; to see and be instructed; Thus to see, and to be shown, is now the will and new expectancy of half of humankind." -Henry R. Luce, in collaboration with Archibald MacLeish

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