Hàng Ngày

Teachers day should be renamed Teachers Week, I think. The festivities began last week with the first round of student performances, followed by “semi-final” performances midweek. Friday night was the first round of teacher performances, and we spent practically all day Friday preparing. First we ehad to practice on stage for the first time, which was a disaster as the stage is tiny. Then we had to practice singing with the house band. They basically followed the singers: a bit hard to get used to, but ultimately good. After the practicing we had to prepare our costumes by putting glitter on the sleeves and trim and cutting holes in our conical hats. The finally, after a short break, the night was on. We began at about 7:30, just after the faculty of agriculture, whose last dance was AMAZING, and definitely better than ours by far. I sang one song with the whole department: “Hát cho Dân tôi Nghe” (A song for my people to hear), which sounds like an army march. Then I sang a duet with Yến, “Một Thoáng Quê Hương” (An image of the countryside), for which I was so nervous the microphone was shaking in my hand. It didn’t help that the band was so loud that I couldn’t hear myself…but after getting on the stage, seeing my students, and not keeling over, I gained my confidence, and it was actually a lot of fun. Both our dance and our duet were chosen to be shown on Teachers Day itself, Monday morning. I feel a bit uncomfortable that they were chosen because there are foreigners dancing in them: the agriculture department’s dance was WAY better than ours, and I feel like they got screwed in some way…and now I have to dance and sing in front of the whole university as well as important local officials!! Ahhh!!

Saturday night was a continuation of Teachers Day activities (it never ends!) on Campus B, where the agriculture school is located, and where I live. I was surprised when I came back from the library to see a series of tents being set up on the volleyball court, the badminton courts, and all of the surrounding grassy areas. I saw a teacher I know and went to ask him what was going on. He told me it’s a tradition that the Ag school puts on every day: a camping festival. The students in each major and class build a tent and the tents are judged (as is everything else on Teachers Day) to see which is the best. They also had games like tug of war. He told me there would be a bonfire, a fashion show, music, and dancing in the evening. I asked how late it would go and he said “maybe all night.” Of course, I didn’t believe him, because nothing lasts all night here…

But, I was wrong. I went to meet some of my students in 6D2 at 8:30, to watch the Ag school performances and fashion show. We arrived mid-bonfire and saw about 100 students holding hands and running at top speed around a giant bonfire in the middle of the volleyball court. Dangerous: I think so. It was great. Students in various tents were playing music, sitting around, eating food, playing games, drinking. At about 9 pm the main even started: the fashion show. The first round was traditional fashion, with Ao Dai for both men and women (I didn’t have my camera with me, sorry!! No pictures this time). The second round was the “unique fashion” round, and it was definitely the best by far. Students made clothing from everything imaginable: raincoats, rice sacks, playing cards, and various plant-matter were most popular materials for costumes. A few of the students even went as the opposite gender: something I didn’t think I would see in
Vietnam (remember the lady-boy shows in
Thailand that I wrote about? Or did I not write about those on the blog, maybe just in emails?) It was hilarious, and when I looked at my watch, I saw that it was 11:30 pm as the fashion show was ending. The students were still going strong, however. I sat outside with the Thai fellows for a few minutes while they played the guitar and sang, and then I left “early” around midnight. I did in fact hear students singing and playing music late into the night, and when I went out to run in the morning there was still action around the tents. So I guess they really did stay up all night…

Today we practiced again for our performance tomorrow: the grand finale. With all of the preparations for this special day, I’m a bit afraid I will be disappointed when it is over. But, I continue to be surprised by the extent to which people go ALL OUT here, so I’m sure there are festivities in store that I am not even ready for. I can’t even imagine what they are yet…

Friday night was the first night of a series of performances leading up to the HUGE Teachers Day celebration next week (November 20th) The preliminary round for the Department of Foreign Languages consisted of about 40 song and dance performances that lasted from 4 pm until 10 pm (with a one-hour break for dinner). The purpose is to determine the best performances which will be performed again on Teachers Day. The students have been preparing for this event for months, and it definitely showed in some of their performances. The afternoon’s performances weren’t too impressive, although there were a few good singers, particularly from 6D1, a romantic duet that was very cute.

 My second year students (6D2) perform a dance with flower-shaped lanterns.

The evening’s performances however, were elaborately choreographed and costumed, and some of them were even well performed. 5D3 had the most elaborate costumes, I think, with the boys dressed up in traditional scholar attire with props of books that they danced with, and the girls carried small lanterns in their hands and moved around on stage between large kite-like structures that the students made just for the purpose of the evening. Another highlight was 5D1, who performed to a pop-song wearing caveman costumes, and danced with clubs around the stage. Two of the students from 5D2 also performed a great duet, in which they acted out the story of the song, with the young girl being taken away from her lover to marry the king, and then the king getting in trouble with his first wife, and the young girl returning happily to her lover in the countryside. I was practically rolling on the floor laughing.

 My third year students (5D3): the grand finale.
Performances are a funny thing here. It seems that louder automatically means better: especially the band, the CD, and the bass guitar. I felt like my brain was vibrating so much it would liquify and begin spilling out my ears. Because the music is so incredibly loud, the singers have to really belt it out in order to be heard which means most singers sound like they’re shouting instead of singing. They also seem to really like to turn up the echo-effect on the microphones, so it sounds like you’re underwater some of the time (accept for the volume, that’s still loud as ever). The hall was filled to the brim with students and teachers and it was hot as *#%@ in there. I’m glad I wasn’t performing under the flashing lights, because I was practically drenched in sweat just sitting there. We get our chance this Friday evening: the English teachers will perform one dance and I will perform two songs, one with the department as a whole, and one with Yen, one of my friends and fellow young teachers here. I’m a bit worried about our dancing. We’re horrible, and some of the students’ performances would definitely put us to shame. And there seems to be a tendency to forget the words to songs when one gets up on the stage here…more about the extravaganza as it continues to unfold…

 Vien, from 5D3, sings a solo.

Extravaganza seems to be the word to describe a lot of events here: they happen on a large scale and in high style: more so than at home, or maybe I’m just exaggerating…Saturday was a very memorable birthday for me, filled with love from students, cake, games, and fun.

I was surprised at about 8 in the morning (while preparing pie crust for the evening’s party) with a visit from the Thai and Vietnamese RCCD fellows. They brought me flowers and a gift of fabric to make an ao dai, the traditional Vietnamese dress, and it was a nice start to the day to get to talk with them for a few minutes before they headed off to self-study. When they left I also went to school, and specifically to the IR office. I had been requested at the office for a “meeting” the day before, although the people in IR are not really as sneaky as my students: I knew exactly what the “meeting” was about. They had a nice card for me, and a present as well, and I stayed and talked to them for a few minutes (always a short meeting, because they are quite busy, especially Dr. Phuong, the head of the office).

 6D2: Let them eat cake!
In the afternoon I was expecting a few of my second years from 6D2 to come over and ask some questions about their homework: they are giving oral presentations about different countries in class today, and a lot of them had vocabulary and pronunciation questions. I was happy to help, and was in my room waiting for them to arrive at 1 o’clock. Then it was 1:15, and I wondered where they were, because they are usually on time, so I went out into the hallway to see if they were perhaps waiting for me there, and saw that there were not a few, but almost all of the students gathered in the dining room. They started scurrying about when they saw me, and I was very surprised to see that they also had brought some flowers and a very tiny cake. We pulled the tables together, they sang happy birthday, and we cut the tiny cake into 20 pieces. Each person got about two bites, and then I brought out some cookies that I had intended to use for the party later that evening, but instead gave to 6D2 to eat. We sang some songs, and then they had to leave because a number of them had to take a physical education re-examination (they failed the first exam last week). I went to cheer them on for a few minutes, then came back to the guesthouse where three of my third year students, Trinh, Thao, and Vien were waiting to help me make the pumpkin pie.

We had a great cooking lesson, and it was quite entertaining trying to roll out pie crusts with chopsticks–it takes a long time! The pies turned out great, just like at home, which was surprising, so this will have to become a regular thing here: it was easier than I thought.

Bang taking a swing at the pinata
In the evening I planned a birthday party for 5D3 and some of the young teachers in the department, so at about 7:30 they began arriving and we cut the little pies for everyone to enjoy. The highlight of the night, and maybe the whole day, was the games that we played at the party. I made a pinata out of cardboard and papier mache (yes, I have finally found a use for rice flour: papier mache!) and we took it up to the roof to play. The students got a real kick out of this, as did the teachers, as did I. It was hilarious watching them blindfolded and swinging this crooked stick at the fish-shaped pinata and even more funny to see them scrambling on the ground for the candy when it finally broke. You’re never too old for a pinata, I guess. We then went back downstairs and played a kind of truth-or-dare game in which you put the dares into balloons and blow the balloons up. When it’s your turn, you choose a balloon to pop and you have to do whatever is written on the card. There was dancing, singing, 10 different kinds of laughter (for me) and various animal impressions that left us all in stitches. At 10 pm we realized that some of the students were going to be locked out of their boarding houses, so the party ended rather abruptly and I spent the rest of the evening cleaning the kitchen, reminiscing about the good times. It was indeed a memorable birthday, and I found that I was not really homesick at all, which was surprising. I thought that my birthday would bring on waves of nostalgia that would leave me yearning for friends and family in the US, and although I thought of previous birthdays, especially those in NYC with friends, I didn’t feel sad in the way that I thought I might. All around a great day, spent with the people I care about most here: my students, a few other teachers, and Jenna and Phil’s family upstairs. Pictures to come soon!

Scrambling on the ground for candy

Apparently autumn is wedding season, at least in Long Xuyen. I’ve been told that this is because the weather gets cold (ha, they don’t know what cold is…) so you want someone to hug and hold on to. Seems like a logical reason to get married, right? I’ve been to three of these weddings so far, and they’re all pretty much the same. First of all, the invitations are red and arrive in beautifully calligraphied red envelopes. The envelope is used for the wedding present: money. Usually you put 100,000 VND into the envelope (about $6.50) and when you arrive at the wedding you slip the envelope into a giant box shaped like a candy heart. For this small gift you get to enjoy the wedding festivities which mostly consist of eating and drinking. Women wear skirts or traditional Ao Dai dress (which always draws extra attention if I wear it. When you wear an Ao Dai you have to ride on the back of a motorbike side-saddle style and everyone riding past you stares back in awe at this foreigner wearing traditional Vietnamese dress sitting like a vietnamese woman on the back of a motorbike).

At the party, the women and men typically sit at separate tables (even the married couples!) and the women drink seven-up or gross-orange-soda while the men drink beer. Talk about separate and not equal! There are typically 5 or 6 courses of food, including appetizer-y things, salad, some sort of meat, and hot-pot, which is a boiling pot of soup over a flame that’s put on the table with a lot of fresh ingredients like seafood, meat, and vegetables. When the water boils, you add the ingredients yourself. As fun as it is to cook, it’s not actually one of my favorite foods, and I still haven’t figured out why it’s so popular here, and why it’s always served as the last course! (it’s rather filling) Throughout the meal, you will hear shots of “mot, hai, ba, yo” from the men’s tables where they are raising their glasses in toasts.

At the beginning of the meal, the bride and groom and their parents walk up to a stage, often to appropriately festive music from such popular albums as “Jock Jams remix.” I’m not kidding. Monday they were playing the song “Blue,” by Eiffel 65 during dinner. It reminded me of 8th grade dances…The bride and groom perform a few rituals, my favorite being opening a bottle of red alcohol and pouring it into a tower of champagne glasses about 5-tall so that it dribbles down into each glass. Then the bride and groom have to come around and greet each table and get a photo and a toast with each table. The bride sometimes changes her dress two or three times during the meal. It seems exhausting, and I wonder if it’s any fun at all for the couple. They definitely don’t get a chance to eat or drink anything during the party.

When the guests are finished eating, which happens at different times depending on how late they arrived (arriving late is customary), they simply get up and leave. Often they will greet the bride and groom outside for yet another photo opportunity and maybe a few words of congratulations. And that’s it. No dancing, which I have been very disappointed with, especially given the appropriate disco-style pop music they usually play. Maybe one of these weddings I’ll break it down for people here and see what happens…