After I left the internet cafe last night, I went back to my room, got my hair rebraided by my roomie, and went out for the mid-autumn festival. DiDi, me, and a bunch of other people took taxis across the city to this bar called Dragonfly. There were a bunch of things to do there as well. People were all dressed up as fairies or the devil for the festival and there was foosball, billiards, a hookah bar, and boys. In the middle of the night, a large dragon danced through the bar as well (see first picture).
I ordered my usual Coke and went over to the pool table, where I played as the partner of some 42 year-old Vietnamese guy. He was extremely drunk and I was glad when we lost after about three games. While playing pool, a large man from the Sierra Leone soccer team pulled me aside and told me that I looked hot in my Vietnam soccer jersey. I smiled and chose to ignore him. Later on, one of his really tall and attractive friends started to dance with me and I focused on not letting him buy me drinks, get my phone number or email, or touch me. After a couple of songs, I went to find all my friends at the bar and then had my first ever experience in a hookah bar. I sat there and watched everyone else smoke since that's not my bag, baby. I left with DiDi and Brittany at midnight, scaled the fence to get into my dorm complex, showered, and went to bed.
After waking up at 8 am, I went and got my egg sandwich and iced coffee. I spoke with the ladies who own the coffee place and they told me I was beautiful. I'm definitely going there every morning. :) Jill met me at the coffee shop and we walked to our Vietnamese class. We worked on pronunciation today for two hours and then walked back towards the dorm and stopped to eat lunch at Jackie, Leah and my favorite eatery. I walked around the corner and back to the dorm at 11:30 am. I listened to music, played games, and then constructed my lesson plan for today. At 1:30 I met the other five people in my internship and we walked for half an hour before reaching the school. We met all of the kids at once, as we entered the meeting hall and over 200 children were sitting there. They applauded as we entered and then we were given a mic and told to talk about ourselves. For the next hour, the six of us asked and answered questions while standing pretty awkwardly in the front of the room. They wanted to know what sports we play, what states we are from, and if we sing. At 3:00, the two teachers divided the room into four groups and Jackie and I chose a group and stayed in the room while all the other groups left. We soon discovered that our group is the most shy and the least proficient in English. They know a lot of English since they've been studying it since first grade, but some of their pronunciation and spelling needs help. Jackie and I played spelling games and taught them about what sounds are made by the letters of the alphabet. We asked them if they had any questions about us or America, and a small boy in the front row raised his hand. He asked us, "What is your secret?" Jackie and I just stared at each other as we mentally searched for any answer to that question. The girl next to him piped up and asked if we had boyfriends. I told them I did and they covered their mouths as they opened them in complete and utter awe. I also tried to teach them "your mom" jokes, but they seemed to respect their moms too much. :)
The students started to get bored towards the end of the three hour class, which is to be expected since I was bored too. We met with the two supervising teachers, co Thuy and co Huong, after the kids all left at 4:45. They gave our group two cell phones to be able to reach them if we had problems or questions. I was so incredibly tired by the time we walked down the street and saw a couple other people from our group. We got on the bus with them and were told to be quiet by the guy collecting money and handing out tickets on the bus. I was glad to exit, even though we had only gone a few blocks. We had to walk the few other blocks to the dorm and I was so incredibly tired, hungry, and hot. Then I spent some time in the room before venturing out to eat dinner and get on the internet with Jackie and Leah. I've been sitting here eating dinner and blogging with my party people since about 6:00 pm.
Now it's your turn to write to me!
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