Flowers are actually far more common than butterflies on Teachers' Day. Flowers are everywhere and students are very gleeful and sincere in wishing all teachers (even strangers in the hall) all the best and Happy Teachers' Day. Even Floor 5's ca phe establishment had a bouquet in honour ... I think I counted 10 kinds of orchids in this arrangement! Gorgeous.
So much excitement in the halls! My class festooned our class with balloons and gave me a very thoughtful gift ... a keychain with a little chick on it. They had asked me about my unusual name when we first met last week, and so we had laughed at its uniqueness. Their gift made me laugh out loud. They gave Jeff, their other L6.1 teacher, a keychain with flip flops on it ... they had remembered that he said that most people in Vietnam drop the final consonants when saying his name, and the resulting word is the Vietnamese for sandals! We felt our class had really thought about our gifts and we were pleased that they had paid so much attention in class. In addition to the students' best wishes, our department put on a very nice spread catered by a top restaurant, and the president sent out a lovely message. All in all, it was a very interesting day and the tradition should probably be adopted in Canada. It is clear that euducation of young people is extremely valued here and teachers are very much respected in this culture. You may note that I have a non-Asian student in my class... Beatriz is from Belo Horizonte, Brazil. She is a lawyer and is a wonderful addition to this class. There is also a Taiwanese student, Jui, ... can you spot him? 
He's the guy in the hoodie. He drives his motorbike for 2 hours every day to get to school (and class starts at 7:30) and then he has a 2-hour drive home where he puts in a full day of work as a manager of a company. Such dedication! Unfortunately a couple of students were missing that day. OK, have to go and make like a teacher and mark some compare/contrast essays!
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