Teacher! Teacher!

Friday, 20 November, was a very special day in Vietnam – National Teacher’s Day. This is a big holiday here. Apparently teachers are so highly esteemed that a special day is set aside to honor them.

P and I were showered with flowers, gifts and well-wishes for our health and prosperity. One of my classes greeted me with the lights off and as I walked into class they turned on the lights for me to see this poem. Click to read.

Two of my classes apparently committed to memory that I once said I like cactus plants. While I don't remember saying this, I must have since I received the two sweet plants shown below.

As if flowers and plants weren't enough, the class that P and I co-teach invited us over for dinner! This is the class that is studying to take The TOEFL test which will allow them admittance to an English-speaking university. Apparently ten of the seventeen students live together in a very large home. Many of their parents work at the same company in their hometown of Vung Tau, which is not too far from Ho Chi Minh City. Many of these kids have known each other since kindergarten and have been together for at least 16 years. Now they are studying English together, will go to college in America together and will return to VN to work at the same company for at least 10 years.

So they decided to invite us for a VN meal. It was delicious!

Everyone sits on the floor around the food and eats from very small bowls.

They prepared a rich pork broth with various spices then offered platters of pork, fish, beef, mushrooms, and many different kinds of veggies - all artfully arranged - to plunge into the hot broth until it is cooked to our preference.

Then we ladle everything into our bowls over very thin noodles, along with some broth. It all gets washed down with ice cold Bia (beer) Hanoi.

The Vietnamese love to sing, so after dinner we sang just about every song we could remember. They were a bit disappointed P and I did not know many Broadway tunes!! I think we made a strong comeback with a few Beatle songs - they especially liked Hey Jude - everyone joined in.

One of the students, Trang (pronounced Chang), brought out her guitar and sang this song.

Trang sings! from Peter Kuhlman on Vimeo.

Since the girls cooked dinner, the boys cleaned up. Within minutes, the place was clean.

It was a great treat to be invited to dinner, to experience a true VN meal, and to spend this kind of time with some of our students. It was a testament to how much they value their teachers and we felt very honored.

Afterwards, we all took a walk around the neighborhood - P's post about that follows.

O.