Guest at An Lão School Openings

5th September was the day for the official beginning of the new school year, and Vinh had asked me to be the guest at the openings for the primary school and the high school he works at. I was picked up bright and early at 6.45am - School begins early in Việt Nam.

The stage was set up in the quadrangle, and a marquee in case of rain...

 Each class paraded proudly

 Dancers waiting backstage.

Then the performances began...

 These two gorgeous girls were in the class I taught here during the holidays.

 These beautiful ladies are the teachers.

I was given these beautiful flowers and asked to present the award to the top student - another boy from Vinh's English class.

The primary school ceremony was still going when we left and Vinh hurried me over to the High School for their ceremony and by then it was raining. Again I was invited to come and present the award to the top student - such an unexpected honour!

These dancers must have been practising all through their summer holidays for this is their first day back at school.

 It was pretty rowdy up the back...

Afterwards, many of the students gathered around keen to try out their English. Vinh said that for many it would have been the first time they had spoken to a foreigner... they certainly aren't shy!

This is the boy who was awarded the prize for top student.

Then to top off a beaut morning Vinh took me home for lunch and I got to see his beautiful baby girl...

The dog I gave her is as big as she is!

And even with a baby just a few weeks old, Bich welcomed me with this scrumptious lunch.

 

When I came home with flowers again and told Toni about the morning's events, she said she reckoned I was like The Queen Of Hải Phòng ... a celebrity  LOL!

National Day Holiday Party

2nd September is Vietnam's National Day Holiday as well as the anniversary of Hồ Chí Minh's death. Although a lot of the Nam Phap students went home for the weekend, a bunch of then got together for a party - this time at a restaurant at Đồ Sơn. Khánh picked me up late, so they had already started by the time we arrived...

Trung, Melissa and John

They are such delightful company - Mười and some of the girls - Nhung, Thoa, Dương and ...

Xuân was playing a card game with some others where if you lost a hand they smeared charcoal on your face....

After lunch they brought out some mats for us all to lie on the floor for a nap, but John and Melissa and I said we'd head down to the beach and meet them there later. These students are such gracious hosts they put the mats away, went without their usual kip and came with us. Of course, it was very hot and the beach is not the best place to be in the middle of the day, so we found a patch of shade and played poison ball...  lots of laughter...

Then some watermelon and a drink and a few songs

and it was finally cool enough to venture down to the beach. But it certainly doesn't look like the beaches back home... they need to get a "Clean up Vietnam Day" going here.

I didn't go swimming, but I got wet enough to cool off.  We were about to play a ball game when Khánh got a call from Tinh to say he was in Hải Phòng passing through on his way back to Quán Nam and would only be in town for a short while so we high-tailed it back into town and met him at the Chè Huế place. He and Khánh are working at the same huge construction site, but for different companies, so they don't see one another very often. It was lovely to catch up with him again.

He decided to catch a later bus and by then Xuân's party had finished, so he joined us for Bún Chả. After that we went to Meagan's so Tinh could say goodbye to Will, Khánh went to play soccer with his mates, then Xuân gave Tinh a ride to the bus station and I walked home, ready to crash after such a late night and full on day... that was the plan till Xuân called and asked me if I'd like to go with him to karaoke with his English Club friends. You know what they say...'Never pass up an opportunity!'... even after 3 hours' sleep the night before???

Xuân and Tuấn

This is Thái

It was fun... only a few there and they could really sing well, so it was very enjoyable and fortunately not a late night !!

William's Wee Birthday Party

It's Will's birthday on Monday, but this is a holiday weekend in Việt Nam and he'll be going to Cát Bà on Sunday so he shifted his "wee party" to today. We started out with four of us at a Snake Restaurant called Quản Rắn Sờn Lâm . Will had heard all about it and was busting to go there before leaving. The story is that there are a couple of escaped cobras around the place and if you get bitten by one there is no immediate medical help so the chef will chop off the bitten bit to save your life - finger, hand, foot.... whatever!!!  Needless to say, we counted the fingers on the handlers before we all took a step back when they pulled this 3 year old cobra out of the cage.

Once they had a good grip on it's head, they milked its venom. It's amazing just how much venom there was...

Then they killed it and took the beating heart out and put it in a cup,  and drained the blood and the bile...

I video'd the entire slaughtering process, which was fascinating... so efficient and quick. The skin is peeled off (much easier than skinning an eel - and they're not slimy either!) and the meat is filletted off like pulling off a ribbon.  Very little is wasted, just some of the guts. Even the intestines are stripped out and sliced open to be cooked up later.

Being the birthday boy William got to swallow the beating heart!!!! And he did it - a shot of rice wine and it just slipped down... but he said he could still feel it beating...

I dunno... does he look kind of glazed to you?    LOL

The ladies got on with preparing the food and the clean up was done in no time...  We were escorted to a private dining room which overlooked the large pond. Fortunately the day was cool enough to enjoy fresh air with fans blowing rather than air-conditioning.

Chey, Katherine and Will

First we were presented with 2 bottles - rice wine mixed with the snake's blood, and another mixed with it's bile... and it was time for a toast.

So we began with a shot of blood wine... Katherine found it hard going though! LOL

The snake was presented in various dishes... all of them tasty...Especially this dry mix. It was pretty much like dukka, but it's made from ground bones, peanuts and spices all roasted together - very tasty!

These portions of fried backbone were chewy but flavoursome.

After a while Toni joined us in time for a toast of blood wine and bile wine combined (I must admit I couldn't come at that one). She had been to Hanoi for an adventure at a film studio and was late getting back. We sat around the table chatting as the sunset and the ducks settled down for the night on the pond.

It was all quiet and peaceful out there in the middle of nowhere in the countryside. Very pleasant. We got a shock when we got the bill, though. It was twice as much as they had quoted over the phone when Will made the booking... worked out at $35 each! - an enormous price for dinner over here.

Anyway, after that we headed back into the city to a delightful party boat moored by a bridge.

It doesn't actually go anywhere, so there was no 'harbour cruise', but a thoroughly enjoyable karaoke deck sitting out in the open in the cool of the evening.  Xuân joined us...

... then it wasn't long before a crowd of other foreign teachers joined in the celebrations - probably 20 or more unwinding after the week's work.  The boat bar closed for the night at 11pm, so the party moved on to Julie's Bar. It was jammed packed with people and Will was in full on celebration mode... here he is dancing on the bar with Rie.

While we were at Julie's Bar Khánh arrived. He had caught a bus down from Quảng Ninh and is home for the weekend. It is so good to see him... He is very brown from working out in the sun...quite a tan! I must admit is was a memorable night for me, heart to heart with Will and Khánh - two of my favourite people - doing gin and tonic shots.  Will kept saying that he couldn't get over how close we are when I'm as old as his Grannie and even his Mum wouldn't dream of doing what I'm doing ... LOL ... telling me I'm awesome. It was a night I will never forget.

Toni and I finally caught a taxi home at 3am... no classes tomorrow. Just as well!

Bare Feet !!

On Wednesday, Tony moved out of the house. His contract has finished and his new job includes accommodation. So it was a great incentive to get stuck into cleaning out the kitchen... (new) Toni and I spent Thursday morning scrubbing and rearranging the downstairs room and the kitchen and now it's spotless and inviting. (We didn't tackle the bathroom though...  just shut the door.)

Then today I realised that I no longer have to put on shoes before venturing out of my room, because the floors are now clean... and stay clean! Woo-oo!!  Bare feet!!!