Tết đến rồi



Drummers

Well, tết tết tết đến rồi, and everyone is getting very excited. At RMIT, the students are all finished their exams and the halls are pretty quiet. Staff are having a hard time concentrating ... reminds me of the last few weeks in June in Canada. People are making plans to visit their hometowns or go away for the break. A few people are staying in Sài Gòn, but not too many. A lot of my colleagues are going to India this year; others are going to Japan, Thailand, the States, Cambodia, Cyprus, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines. Me, I am going to Laos. 

Lion Dance

As I know from last year, although this city pretty much closes down during Tết, it is in the midst of getting ready right now. All the Christmas lights and decorations are down and new ones are up (or almost up) for Tết. I see a lot of people cleaning house and stores are being scrubbed as well. Stores and store windows are being decorated. Being the south, shop windows are full of yellow apricot blossoms, called hoa mai. Flower sellers are starting to bring in large pots of flowering trees to place by the sides of the streets. The main flower streets are just starting to be worked on; they will soon be closed to traffic and transformed in 10 days. Lots of talk about red envelopes. It is very nice to see the preamble to Tết this year and know a little bit about what is going on.

My colleague Yen and her son, Xi Trun

 

My colleague Phoenix and son, Ian



RMIT had its Tết party last week. Each year the university puts on a bash. This year it was on the grounds, near the playing fields ... kind of like an evening garden party. There were lots of staff wearing traditional Vietnamese costumes, good food, lots to drink, and some good entertainment.


My colleague Fiona, the emcee par exellance

 

And of course, we all got red envelopes ... with REAL money inside. I neglected to bring my camera, so am inserting some photos from the RMIT newsletter; I think it’s OK. I didn’t stay too late, but heard that there was a lot of dancing and people had a bit of a wild night ... something about catnip in the grass ... perhaps locoweed...(^-^)...


My colleagues Bich Nhi and Trang



My colleague Vy

 

Calligraphy!

Saturday was my first chance to spend time with the kids from Mai Tam in a long while. Susana, a Norwegian volunteer (who lives in my apartment complex with her husband, Thuy, and kids, Leo and Noah) treated the kids to a playday at a kids’ indoor playground in Thiên Sơn Plaza in District 7.

She took them in two separate groups. One group went on the 8th; however, I only knew a couple of the kids last week, on the 15th, as the majority of them came from the Go Vap house. Still, they were pretty cute and just loved their time on the tramps and on the bikes and in the ball pits. And painting.  And eating!

To continue up my incredibly social week, I went to an Australia-Vietnam Gala concert at the Opera House this evening. It was in honour of Australia Day, which is on the 26th; apparently it is a travelling road show that will be in Hà Nội tomorrow. The performers were Vietnamese or Vietnamese-Australian young people, namely  Lưu Hồng Quang and Nguyễn Văn Anh, playing classical music on pianos. They were both very good and chose very challenging music; here is a video of Van Anh, who is a very pretty and quite talented 23-year-old pianist with a diverse range and here is one of Hồng Quang, a 20-year-old whose focus is really classical.  The concert also had some more contemporary singers, including Thanh Bùi and Hồ Ngọc Hà, who has quite an incredible voice. They sang a duet of Lặng Thầm Một Tình Yêu, which is here on youtube . Overall, it was a very eclectic performance that I quite enjoyed ... until the last number, which was a boy band that appeared to be lip synching.
To finish up the week, I am going to pass on Australia Day, which will be held at the RMIT playing fields on Saturday and head to Thủ Đức and see the kids at Mai Tâm. Think I’ll take some red envelopes ... my last visit before Tết. Chúc mừng năm mới!!!