Well, I am officially on holidays and I have to say that I am really ready for a break. I have Friday for packing and tidying up and then early Saturday ... very early Saturday ... it’s off to Hong Kong, then Chicago, and then Tulsa. Cait is meeting me in Tulsa and then we will visit Errol’s mom and brother in Big Cabin before we have a mother-daughter road trip home. Yay!It has been a strange 10-week cycle in many ways. First, I had a class that I took over in Week 6. That wasn’t so much fun, as I didn’t get to know them all that well, and then I had the last 5 weeks for resource room inventory and some curriculum work. So it felt quite strange to not be finishing up a class. But it’s all good and learning-full.
Last weekend was a lot of fun, as it was the Hung Vuong’s (Kings’) birthday. My apartment complex is named Hung Vuong, and there are numerous shopping centres, schools, hospitals and so on also named after Hung Vuong. So we had a 3-day weekend and I met Sally and Patricia in the very picturesque and ancient town of HoiAn. I had 3 days with Sally and Patricia, and then they had an additional 3 days there. Hoi An is very famous for tailor shops and certainly there seem to be hundreds of shops that make clothing very quickly for visitors. Shoes and jewelry also. And lanterns!
It is such a beautiful town. You might consider it the Santa Fe or San Miguel de Allende of Vietnam. It is very touristy and certainly it is difficult to walk down the streets without people imploring you to visit their shop and buy something, but that element is somewhat controlled. And most people are fun to talk to. We stopped to buy some items but the woman needed to run (literally) to get more and so Patricia and Sally looked after the store and I was the control for them, as so much inventory loss occurs because of dishonest employees, I hear. They seemed utterly reliable from my (limited) observation. 
We met a few very lovely women who sell items on the beach and their English was pretty good, so we learned lots from them. Quyen, who sells jewelry, is a university student in DaNang. Her father is a fisherman and her mother cleans the Cua Dai Beach. She carries at least 10 kg of jewelry as she trudges up and down that beautiful and scorching hot beach. You can see how many clothes she has on ... it must have been 35 degrees, but Vietnamese women in particular do not want to get tanned. She even had woollen gloves! 
We went a couple of times to a store where old (or dusty) items were sold, among which were some very handsome water puppets, including water buffalo puppets. 
And where a lovely young man named Bai gave us a very unique water puppet show. We went on a few shopping excursions and boat cruises and motorbike tours and of course we tried out a few local delicacies. But we didn’t have anything custom-tailored there.
We stayed in the Pho Hoi resort ... resort in this case means that there is more than one building and a pool and some services ... but it wasn’t too fancy, by any means. Think 2-star resort ... It was by the river and quite quiet. And there were lots of lovely plants and trees on the grounds. Perfectly lovely, but not luxurious by any means. We had to walk across a little bridge, as the hotel is really on Can Nam Island. We were so struck by how important the river is to the folks in HoiAn.
There are loads of islands nearby and people put their bicycles and motorbikes on ferries that leave continuously from a little landing stage. Sometimes we would sit in the little plastic chairs clustered on the sidewalk nearby and drink nước mía (sugar cane juice) and watch all the action. Patricia and Sally took a water taxi home a couple of times. Once I had been on a motorbike tour and as I was going over the bridge, I saw the two of them sailing forth on a boat. I wondered where they were going (without me me me) and was about to call Patricia on her cell phone when I saw the boat start to cut across the river and head for the Pho Hoi ... so we all arrived home about the same time. That was funny. 
On my motorbike tour I had a very short motorbike riding lesson. I thought I had communicated my wishes for a lesson (NOT a tour) quite successfully but after the 15-minute lesson, I got the tour anyway. And it was fine. I saw lots of corn being cooked over wood fires in giant pots. 
My driver, Mr Giao said after a few hours of cooking people would come from all over to take the corn (up to 80 kgs) to various cities. I couldn’t figure out why it would be cooked so far away and then carried all over central Vietnam cooked. Something must have been lost in translation.
And we saw a lot of rice being harvested, so that was a real treat. The fields are beautiful ... like paintings, really.
Mr Giao said people were very happy about the harvest. Just about every house we passed had rice being dried on tarps or on patios in front. Even one chua had a lot of rice being dried in its courtyard.
And we saw some duck farms along the way as well. Very interesting, all in all and nice to see the countryside.
As I was riding around the island, I saw lots of little cams (small temples) in front of people’s houses. Some people call them bàn tien or somesuch???? Spirituality in Vietnam is quite complicated and I certainly cannot figure it out. Many aspects of Confucianism and ancestor worship colour and influence Buddhist practice and possibly even Christians for all I know.
I love these little temples ... the place where they were most prominent were in Hue, where they really were quite different, but my pics from Hue vaporized ... Que lástima. I really want to learn more about these shrines.
After coming back, I had a lovely dinner with my friend, Carl ... one of the newbies who started with me. He is talking about going to Japan in August or September, so I may not get to enjoy his company very much longer. Sad, that.
Sally is with me now in Ho Chi Minh City. We went out to Tokyo Deli last night but ate pasta and cheese tonight ... need to eat up some of the food in the house. It will be so nice to travel over the Pacific Ocean together. So we have one more day together here in Vietnam. Sally wants to go to the Continental tomorrow ... and then to pack. I hope to see some of you when I am back in Canada.As always, too many more photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/raven_chick/
I was sad to see Robyn go, as she has contributed much to RMIT and has been a good friend to me. I will miss her and wish her all the best.
Bánh xèo is like a very thin crepe or pancake made from rice flour and coloured with a bit of turmeric to make it quite yellow. The pancake is cooked in a large wok. (Bánh Xèo Ăn Là Ghiền must have 20 woks on the go at any given time.)
Just before the crepe is folded, some fillings like shrimp, sprouts, mushrooms and the like are tossed in and then the crepe is cooked for a few more seconds before it is served. Accompanying the dish is a huge plate of leaves ... lettuce, mint, basil, mustard, and cumin that you wrap pieces of broken off bánh xèo in before dipping into nước mắm, or fish sauce.
It was all very good and we had some little muffin-y things as well as some gỏi cuốn ... the delicious Vietnamese fresh spring rolls. Yum. At any rate, I was particularly sad to see Bé go home because she had always been so sweet ... not only to me, but to all the RMIT staff. She said a lot of teachers said a special good-bye to her.
She said she was very happy to have so many nice people saying good-bye. I think she liked her farewell celebration which concluded with a trip to a coffee shop after dinner. That was really nice too. Ngoc Anh knew of a place called Một Thuở which was really great ... lots of old memorabilia and a piano/violin duo later on. Ho Chi Minh City has a lot of these wonderful coffee oases, where people come and chat and work on their computers or have dessert and coffee. Some people stay a short time and others stay for hours ... I don't know how the coffee shops make any money, but they are really neat places. I wish Phu My Hung had one.
I made Bé a photo album of some pictures I had taken and promised to send her prints of the ones I took at our party, as she doesn’t have a camera. She was really happy with that ... she is such a lovely, lovely person and I will really miss her (and the hearts she used to put on the top of my lattes). 
More people leaving ... quite a diaspora in some ways ... but I think teaching abroad is like that. People really do come and go. Best wishes to them all. Tạm biệt còn hẹn gặp lại. 
Thu told me they were all going to the zoo. At first I thought I would stay back and help with the babies, but all the kids from 3 years old and up were going to the zoo, so I thought I could be more useful with that group. It looked as though the folks staying back with the babies (including a very sad Mr Ha) were going to have a nice laid-back morning.
When the kids got to the zoo, they were incredibly excited. We were all transported to the zoo by taxi or by van. Miss Thao has rarely been in a car except to go to the hospital, I think, but when she saw the balloon sellers and the fountain and the lion dancers, she was delighted beyond words. She laughed and pointed and was overcome with joy. She really is such a cutie. We had to wait a bit for the last car for a few minutes and the kids patiently lined up and waited ... people counting heads often to make sure everyone was accounted for. The littlest boys stayed in line for a while, holding on to each others’ shirts. Mr Minh, the smallest walker, (aka the slowest) was the leader.
That lasted until the bigger boys caught sight of the elephants ... then they took off. After that, it really was a matter of looking out for many children and holding hands and carrying little boys and girls and listening to excited Vietnamese child commentary and wiping noses. Nobody asked me to take them to the bathroom, which I was grateful for, because I didn’t see but one and it was right next to the elephants ... and the smell of elephant poo was quite prominent. Mmmm, elephant poo. The big hits seemed to be the deer, which had the most space relatively speaking and the elephants, orangutans, tigers, and cheetahs, which had none to speak of.
It was really hot and the kids were great.
There were a few breaks to keep the kids hydrated and it was lovely to see them go on the grass and run around. Many of them wanted to go into the petting zoo to see the goats and sheep and feed them (the handlers had little bundles of leaves and carrots) but some of the goats were a bit aggressive and most of the children were scared ... at first. 
After a couple of hours the littlest kids started getting tired and Hoang fell asleep. One of the preseminarian volunteers carried him a long way.
I took over when we came to a sitting down place and the baby continued to sleep for about half an hour. He’s such a little bruiser ... looks like he will get in plenty of scraps when he is older and he always has bruises and cuts on his little head. So many kids came to kiss him and rub his head ... like a little Buddha. He is much loved. His nickname is Chua (pagoda). When he woke up, he wasn’t surprised that a total stranger was holding him. I gave him some water, as it was so hot and he was very calm and serene. A little girl saw he was waking up and quickly came to claim him and take him to get a drink. So, off he went and his place was quickly taken by another sweet girl who wanted help in eating French fries ... so she sat on my lap and finished her snack. Somewhere along the way, little Luan decided he wanted to pull the suitcase with the drinks, and so that became his job. He schlepped that case all over the zoo ... a very good worker.
After the main snack/lunch, it was decided that the kids were starting to get tired and so we began to make our way back to the exit. Little Thao said she was mệt mỏi. 
Mr Minh wanted to be carried and he was asleep in seconds ... what a lump! We had a group photo ... Minh and I are standing behind a very tall Swedish woman named Silla ... and then the taxis and vans started the people-moving back to Thu Duc.
I waited at the zoo for Mr Nhan to take me back to Phu My Hung. As I was waiting, I saw one of the volunteers and two girls who didn’t make it to the bus. I am not sure what the story on that was, but she took them home on her motorbike, so it all worked out. Also, the preseminarians were heading on back to their residence. It is nice that I have come to be familiar with some of these folks. Just as Nhan and I arrived in Phu My Hung, the heavens opened and it poured down rain. So, the timing of the zoo expedition was impeccable. What a lovely morning, thanks to Silla and other friends from Sweden and the folks and kids at Mai Tam. 
Hope your morning was as active and satisfying! More pics on flickr! 
And then there is Miss Thao, who has just got the sweetest spirit and drive. She had a big sore on her foot, the result of a fall from a bike, I think. She was not happy when she had to have it dressed ... poor little thing has been so sick for so much of her life that she gets all upset at the sight of medical paraphernalia.
And then there is Chuot, who is such a beautiful boy, but when he is mad, he can really pitch a fit. Same with Luan, who is so clever and sweet ... when he wants to be. He smucked Chuot this morning and when Chuot went to Xang to stick up for him, there was quite a brouhaha. Luan wouldn't say "xin loi" though .. and kept paying the price from Xang when the adults weren't watching.
And what about Mr Minh and Miss Ti? I am coming to know them ... know half of their names at any rate. The babies are adorable ... little SiSi and Tien, who can apparently fall asleep anywhere.
And one of the sweetiest is Boi Boi, who is a girl. She has grown a lot since I started going ... 6 months old now and pulling herself up and crawling. But she is just a baby girl.
And then there is Manh, who is a little boy. He and his siblings arrived last week and he is just 4 months old. I got to hold him for a very long time today, which is probably why I had such a good time today. He was a little sucky baby today and didn’t want to sleep in his bed. He got his inoculation recently and had a big sore spot on his arm, so I guess he just felt better being cuddled. His mother and brothers had gone off to visit his father in the hospice. So sad.
There was a lot of company today. First there was a group of women from Australia brought there by a woman named Judith, who has been a long-time supporter of Mai Tam. Then there was a group of high school students who were all members of a Korean church group. They were unannounced as there had been a miscommunication somewhere along the way. They came just as the children were having their after-lunch showers and getting ready for their naps. However, the visitors were much more interesting than routines and, honestly, the Korean teenagers were really wonderful with the kids. And it was good they gave the kids all their junk food after lunch rather than before. I was very impressed by the way the boys loved to hold the babies and several of the visitors really engaged the older children. As most of them have been living in Vietnam for several years, I hope they can speak some Vietnamese ... their English was pretty good from what I could tell. Ohhh, multilinguality!
I was especially happy to see Ricky and his aunt, Co Thom, again. She is a retired French teacher and he is a wonderful young man who is just 25. Ricky works for a German company and he speaks some German and French, because of his aunt. They come very Saturday for 4 hours ... 10-2, where I go 8-12, so our shifts overlap. I have to brush up on my French so Thom and I can speak more easily, although she is good at English listening. My French comes out all Spanish now. I am not a polyglot, sad to say.
I think I might have nodded off on the way home. Could’ve happened. It was the heat more than likely. More pics on flickr ...