Tet Den Roi

So, it's 2009, as usual I didn't make a resolution but I just hope for another safe and exciting year, beginning in Vietnam and ending in America.

What's happened in the past couple weeks?

The Christmas decorations have been replaced with Tet decorations. Really elaborate red and yellow signs and lanterns and hanging things with symbols on them, or messages like "happy new year". The symbols looks like Chinese characters but they're actually the old version of Vietnamese, before they adopted the Latin alphabet. Everyone is getting really excited about the upcoming holiday, and it is a similar feeling to America when people hope for greater fortune and luck in the new year. One thing that you must do is buy new clothes to wear on Tet. I bought some jeans and shirts with Uyen's help, and it took a lot of driving around to different stores to find jeans that fit me. I was excited to start wearing my new clothes, but she told me I can't wear them until the actual day of Tet. I will be spending two weeks in her hometown of Pleiku with her family, starting on January 20. Looking forward to it, and participating in all the traditions, but right now I'm not really sure what to expect.

Classes have been winding down at schools, and I haven't been getting as many classes this past week or so, as I guess people are eager for Tet. In one of my classes only 2 students out of 13 showed up, but we still made the most of it. I finished up at the public school a couple weeks ago, and they had an interesting way of saying thanks and farewell. After my last class, I said goodbye to the students and walked out of the classroom, and one of the women who worked there was standing outside, and she handed me a wad of money and said "your salary." Then I signed my name on a piece of paper and I was off. Looking back, those were very fun classes, and I'm glad I did it to see the lighter side of teaching English, and see what it's like to teach kids.

There's a Tet song that I heard on TV. It goes "Tet, Tet, Tet den roi..." which means "Tet, come now!" Except the song is sung with the northern Viet pronunciation, so the "r" sounds like a "z".

Today is Sunday, and you know what that means... pizza and banana day!

Bye for now!