The spice of life

I've had a game in my back pocket for last week's class and last night's English club, but the first time I ran out of time and last night it just didn't quite fit. Today, I decided I couldn't run out of time if we did it first. To review last week's lesson on different vehicles, we went outside. I would say the name of a vehicle (e.g. sports car) and students had to scramble to get in groups of how many passengers fit in the car (in the case of the sports car, 2). I always feel a little guilty when I'm teaching a listening class because I feel like they're way less fun than speaking classes, but this game got our listening class off to an energetic start.

I mentioned previously that during break the campus loudspeakers blast an assortment of Vietnamese songs for fifteen minutes. Well, today, I heard a song start with some strangely familiar notes. The next thing I knew "As Long As You Love Me," by the Backstreet Boys, was reverberating all over campus. To call it surreal is an understatement.

For speaking class I showed clips from various sci-fi films and had them choose a city and imagine what it would be like in the future. Much to my (not) surprise, most of them chose Ben Tre. While they brainstormed, I tried to redeem myself for yesterday's troll. What do you think?

A nice backdrop for their presentations?

In the afternoon the power went out. It almost made me laugh because just yesterday I had been thinking about how many times the power went out in Hanoi and that it had yet to go out here. I decided it was the perfect time to take a nap. When the power came back on I decided to explore the offerings of my recently set up cable TV. To add to the surreality of the day, I discovered the 1937 film, The Good Earth, on the Turner Classic Movies channel. Here I am in Asia, surrounded by Asians, and on TV I find a movie set in China with every main character played by a white actor in yellowface. Even knowing that it was filmed over 70 years ago didn't make it any easier to stomach. Instead, I watched The Incredibles. Spending my afternoon watching TV might make me feel a little bit guilty, but I have to say, watching something that didn't require me to wait for it to load felt like a luxury. I'll try not to indulge too often.

Tonight I was planning on going out to dinner with Morena, the new ETA. She had yet to try phở and I figured it was as good an excuse as any to go to the phở place I've been haunting. But, when the time came for us to meet up, it had been pouring for at least an hour and showed no signs of letting up. We tried to wait it out but after half an hour decided to brave the tempest. To mix things up I was going to have cà ri bò, beef curry (not caribou). I had heard that it is quite spicy and I was fully prepared to set my mouth on fire, but when we got there they were out of it. Luckily, phở is by no means a bad second choice. To not disappoint my cravings for pain, I upped the amount of hot sauce I use and even took the next step: I added fresh sliced chilis to my phở. I don't think I can claim as high a spicy tolerance as most of my friends, but I think I have passed some kind of threshold. Dare I say I like spicy food? Life skill goal #1: check. On the way back we got corn on the cob and it hit the spot.

I was all ready to veg out for the rest of the evening, and had already begun doing so, when I heard a knock at my door. I had forgotten that yesterday some students had told me they wanted to visit me around eight pm. It was a lovely hour spent with company, and I am really starting to (try to) learn people's names. It is so hard having about 80 students and maybe another 40 teachers/teacher-students whose names I don't know or am afraid to mispronounce.