Vietnamese Women's Day, take two

Although the university celebrated Vietnamese Women's Day on Friday (see previous post), the actual holiday is today, 20 October. Apparently all the women were too busy on Mondays to hold an event today. Go figure.

At any rate, today has been absolutely lovely. I woke up a few minutes early to make sure I had time for my sticky-rice-and-soy-milk routine before teaching at 7am. Not only have I become more a morning person, but I've also become more of a breakfast person since arriving in Nha Trang. (Although I guess the two developments are related!) And I'm becoming quite adept at communicating what I want to the sticky rice (xoi) vendor. Of course, it's usually some variation of the following: one sticky rice to go, two soy milks to go, one with ice (for immediate consumption) and one without ice (to be refrigerated for a pre-bed snack). While the rest of my vietnamese still sucks, I have my sticky rice lingo down!

In class, some students were doing a presentation on Angkor Wat. I remembered watching a Discovery Channel special on Angkor Wat when I was young, probably in primary school or middle school, and thinking I would never get to see the place in my lifetime. And now here I am, a plane-ride away from Siem Reap and with the Angkor temples at the top of my to-visit list, if for no other reason to prove my pre-teen self wrong. But of course that's not the only reason.

And after thanking whatever twist of fate brought me this close to Angkor, after all, I found receiving a bouquet of flowers from my students, who wished me health, happiness, and "to become even more beautiful". Extemporaneous speaking skills, take two. I again issued thanks for being welcomed at the university, explained how much I love this place and how happy I am to be here, and how excited I am to be a part of Women's Day. And I made another statement--albeit less bland, this time--about the importance of this holiday and of recognizing women's achievements and working for their further progress in society. Ok, I admit--still a little tame, but I need to watch what I say here.

On top of all of this, the view from my classroom at 7am is spectacular. How is this my life?

Class was followed by some lesson planning with my co-teacher, Khanh. Afterwards, Katherine and I were escorted to the Language Center office to discuss some more teaching opportunities, and to receive even more women's day gifts--another thing of flowers and....a mysterious wrapped giftbox. As we walked home, we tried to list all the possible contents of the box.

Katherine: Maybe it's a book. (Shakes the box.) It feels book-like.
Me: Hm...I dont know...(shakes box). I don't think so.
Katherine: Maybe it's a bag?
Me: (shakes box). That would be nice. I've been looking for a new bag for months.
Katherine: (still shaking box). It sounds like there's a bell on it or something.
Me: (Shakes to hear bell sound). I dont hear a bell in mine. Maybe it's a box set of shampoo? Or some other toiletry product? That would be useful.
Katherine: How many kinds of toiletry products are there?
Me: I don't know. Lots. (Shakes box). Oooh! Maybe it's pearls! [Katherine got pearls from the English Department for her birthday.)
Katherine: Nah. Too heavy.

(back in my room, opening the boxes.)

Katherine: If they're bags, do you think we got the same one?
Me: I dont know...Oh...wait...this is definitely not a bag....

We open our boxes to find that we had each received....a boat. Made out of seashells. And with questionable craftsmanship, as glue was visible all over the place. There was nothing to do but laugh. I had been told that I would receive money for Women's Day, so the boat was a little surprising. And definitely more comical, if not at at all practical!


I set the boat on my desk beside my collection of flowers (although my desk will not be its permanent home!), and set to cleaning my room, preparing lessons, eating lunch, talking to Sam about how and where we're going to watch the election results while he's here, reading the news (cheers to colin powell, google's new "mail googles" feature, nancy spero at the reina sofia, and angelina jolie being hotter and more incredible than ever; jeers to madonna getting divored and mccain-palin being embarrassing). I'm feeling a renewed sense of productivity today and I worked right through naptime. Soon enough it was time for teaching again, and I plodded off to G2, dreading the three periods in an un-airconditioned classroom. But it was a fabulous class, in the end. The building is right over the sea so there's a nice breeze, exploited with open windows and doors, and fans. And I really like this class of kids. They're first year English majors, attentive, easy-going, active. And there are some really spunky ones: A girl who chose "Bean" as her English name (re-christening them was not my idea, might I add); a guy who's my age and has long hair and blue-tinted glasses; an outspoken girl with great pronunciation; and I even noticed today that a new student chose "Carrot" has her name. I pointed out the latter development to my co-teacher, who was immediately concerned about the legitimacy of the girl's pseudonym. I explained to her that I thought the name was fine--people in America have all kinds of nontraditional names. Apple, Phinneus, Pilot Inspektor, Moon Unit. And if we're going to make these kids pick new names, we should at least let them choose whatever the hell they want, as long as it's in English. The girl, totally unaware that her new name was potentially endangered, got to keep Carrot.

And of course, the students of this class, too, offered me some flowers and well wishes for Women's Day. Repeat twice previous "Thanks and here's to the progress of Women" statement, which at this point is no longer extemporaneous but nearly memorized by heart.

I really need to take pictures of the view from my classroom at 5pm--the sea, the mountains, the evening sun glowing over the pagoda on Hon Do Island. I can't get over what a beautiful place I live in. Really, it's just mindblowing most days. Even during class today, I would catch a glimpse out the window and would just be struck by how gorgeous it is here. I would have to keep myself from audibly saying "Oh my god..." Again, how is this my life?

For dinner this evening we met Lene and Maiken (visiting Norwegian prof and her daughter, respectively) for dinner at Thien Y, our favorite low-budg vegetarian joint. Lene treated us to dinner since we helped her edit an article she submitted to a journal. It was really my pleasure helping though, if for no other reason than that the article was quite interesting. It was about gendered research into entrepreneurial networks--just my thing! Dinner, of course, was followed my smoothies at Tra, our favorite smoothie place. Katherine and I do try to mix it up sometimes but we're really starting to wear a path.

Back at home, I settled in to do some work but was interrupted by three visitors. The first was Duan, one of our two best guy friends here, who brought me a wonderful gift--a potted cactus that flowers! Yes, a cactus flower! (I think only one reader will get this reference but the rest should be assured that cactus flowers do have some significance to me :). ) The gift was really perfect, and the boys are so sweet to give me such a generous gift.

The second knock on my door came from Kamrul, who came to wish me a happy women's day, of course, and to ask if I was feeling better. I was a little less than 100% this weekend; in fact, I was a little worried I was getting shingles. But I took it especially easy on Sunday (hard to do when most of my days, even busy ones, aren't particularly taxing) and curled up in bed and watched one of my favorite rom-coms, KISSING JESSICA STEIN. I thanked him for the warm wishes and assured him I'm feeling a bit better.

My final visitor was Steve. I opened the door and he said with a smile, "I'm about to really screw you over." Confused, I noticed two big black bags in his arms. He opened one and extended it to me, to reveal....a fishbowl and goldfish! He explained that he thought I probably had enough Women's Day flowers, so he got me these instead. I was ECSTATIC. I squealed and jumped up and down and threw my arms around him. And kept jumping. (I also jumped about the cactus, I might add.) I had fish in the States that I loved, and I'm just so happy to have some little friends in my room! (Other than the lizards.) Steve had picked out a lovely fishbowl with shell-shaped feet, and had even prepared water for the bowl and bought fish food. The man thinks ahead. I continued to bounce around until he had finished helping me set up the whole thing, and hugged him one more time for good measure.

(I'd like to add this this incredibly kind gesture from Steve is on top of his recent generosity in letting Sam borrow his bicycle while he's here. Steve's been going out of his way to make sure the bike is a), still here [it was in the university parking service, which had "lost" it for a while] and b), in perfect working order. So, so kind.)

final women's day bounty

new friends, Trac and Nhi, named after the Trung Sisters, who I thought deserved some mention on Vietnamese Women's Day.

It's hard to beat 2006's "Dia della Donna" (spent wandering around the Uffizi on lovely morning in Florence and, later in the evening, in Vernazza, Cinque Terre, Italy, enjoying home-made pesto gnocchi and Cinque Terre wine with Sam) but today was a close second.

I was dragging a tiny bit this weekend, but today I'm feeling rejuvenated for no particular reason. I'm feeling more motivated. I'm back to my almost disgustingly-happy self. So, so, so happy. Today in my second class I realized I was walking around with this goofy smile on my face that I could barely control. And it wasn't just about women's day. In fact, it was almost entirely unrelated to women's day. It's just a general, overall, seemingly intrinsic happiness that I've discovered within myself. Like discovering a little "eternal flame" inside. Or like looking out at the ocean from my classroom and thinking that maybe, just maybe, the water could go on forever...



Currently listening: Changing of the Seasons, by Ane Brun (which I just bought from iTunes as a Women's Day present to myself, especially since I haven't spent hardly any money lately!)