A Silent Thank You

Last night I finished uploading all the photos to my blog entry and then went to Jackie’s room where she and Sarah we doing work. I worked on my photo project for about two hours, finished most of it, and then went to bed at 12:30 am.

I woke up this morning at 6:30, grabbed an egg sandwich from a new place down the street, returned to my room and donned my ao dai, and went back down the street to catch a taxi with Jackie and Leah. As we stood on this island in the middle of traffic and everybody pointed at us because we were wearing traditional Vietnamese dress, a man with a huge camera approached us and asked to take our picture. We laughed, said yes, and then he told us to walk across the street. After our impromptu “Abbey Road” photo shoot, he asked for our names and our cell phone number because it might be printed in the paper. Oh boy!

We finally caught a taxi and got to school just in time to enter the premises through the front gate, where a drum and trumpet fanfare ensued. I was startled and even a bit scared until we saw our supervisor Thuy. She escorted us to the courtyard of the school, where there were hundreds of children already sitting on benches and pointing at us because we were wearing our ao dais. We sat down at 7:45 am and waited for the ceremony to start. It’s our school’s 90th anniversary and tomorrow is National Teacher’s Day, so it was a huge ceremony complete with flags, dancing, saluting, singing the national anthem and the school’s song, dancing with flags, raising the flag, etc. The kids had worked so hard on their dance and even had really cool costumes. It was a bit loud, though, with the music and the announcer speaking in Vietnamese over the music. At one point at the beginning of the ceremony I spotted a huge entourage entering behind this one older man who was wearing a dark suit and a Communist red scarf. I came to find out that he is the secretary general of the Communist party and that his name is ¬¬Nong Duc Manh. (See fourth picture). As he passed in front of our group of English teachers, he smiled, bowed a bit, and put his hands together in a silent thank you. It was pretty neat, actually.

I then sat on this really uncomfortable wooden bench in this restrictive traditional garb until 9:30. We heard this Vietnamese woman speak about the anniversary of the school and then the secretary general spoke. There was a lot of dancing by the kids and then it ended. We took some pictures with our supervisors, said goodbye to the students we could find, and then left. On our way out, Jackie and I were stopped by one really sweet little girl from our class. She told us her mother was coming with a present for us, so we waited by the road with her and spoke about her trip to American next summer. She is so cute and wants to visit us so we said she could email us and we’d try to see her. When her mom arrived a bit before 10:00, she presented us with a card and two Christmas tree ornaments. We thanked her and then she even offered to have her driver take us to class! That was so nice because we were already an hour late, as we had planned.

We got to class at about 10:15 and did the usual stuff until 11:00, when we were dismissed. I walked back to the dorm (in high heels!) and I went with Jackie to get her lunch at our usual rice buffet place. The girls who work there were so excited to see us in our ao dais and then I went back and took it all off (thank God!) Jill and I were on the 31 bus and on our way to Asashi Sushi before 12:00 and got off the bus early, walked down the street, and ate lunch. I had some salmon rolls with their awesome fried rice which they add salmon to. We finished, paid, and then walked down a block to the Vincom shopping mall, where I finalized my final photography portfolio (which can be found at http://hws.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020916&l=2f70d&id=32001827 ) and wrote my last internship journal.

At 4:00 we ventured over a few blocks and waited awhile before catching the 8 bus to the lake. We then walked to Sago and talked to DiDi, but she had stuff to do and we left right before she did. We walked around the fringe of the Old Quarter and Jill looked for some teacups to match her eating set. I found a robe, had them change the hem a bit, and we found this tasty and cheap food place on that street. I had my xao bo and a Coke and spoke Vietnamese with the waitress for a bit. At 6:00 pm we paid, left the restaurant, picked up my robe, and then found Jill’s teacups. We headed to the ATM and then caught a cheap xe om back to the dorm which put us back before 8:00.

Back in my room, I put my final photo project onto a cd and then went downstairs to try and get internet. Of course the internet and my computer are still feuding so I will have to post this blog tomorrow. I then talked with DiDi and Sarah in DiDi’s room until about 10:30, when Sarah left and we took a xe om to Finnegan’s. I had a Coke, played some pool and actually did well, and then left with DiDi and Leah on xe oms at 12:30 am. When we got back to the dorm, the gate was locked and I climbed over it before the guy woke up and opened it because DiDi was standing there in a dress and our friend Victor had to get his motorbike out. I then hung out in DiDi’s room for an hour looking at photos before I went to bed at 1:30 am.