This past Friday, we celebrated Teacher's Day at my school. They take this "holiday" very seriously here; every school throws the teachers a celebration party and gives them all gifts. My school was no exception, and we spent almost 2 hours being handed bouquets of flowers, watching students sing songs and dance, and even enjoying a faculty party complete with catered Vietnamese food and wine. The bouquets of flowers are packed full of colored paper and other little trinkets, so they end up being as a big as a garbage can. Since I received 5 of these, I had to enlist the help of Son and his motorbike to help me get them home (can you even imagine me and 5 gigantic bouquets on my tiny motorbike?). I was also given a huge assortment of gifts (a majority of it being perfume or beauty supplies) and was really impressed that the families spent so much money on the gifts. A majority of my gifts came from high-end designer labels (i.e. Chanel perfume, Ferragamo wallet), and it felt like some absurd form of Christmas. Son insisted that Vietnamese families believe that the nicer the gift, the better the grade. If that really is the case, all my students will be getting A's. I also was given a bunch of material with which to make an Ao Dai (the Vietnamese traditional dress) and I am currently debating whether I should actually use the material for that purpose, since I'm not sure how often I would wear an Ao Dai. My best gift was a big, hardcover book that is called "Traces of Old Ha Noi". It is full of pictures of Ha Noi from a hundred years ago, and it's so interesting to see all my familiar hangouts in these pictures. I'm excited to bring it home to show everyone.
In addition to the presents and flowers, I got a great many cards. A majority of these are incredibly funny, given my students (and their parents') limited English. Some examples are below:
"I wish you are beautiful, have some good children, you live happily. -Cam Le"
"I very love you because you is very beautiful. Love, Phuong Linh"
"I hope you will more pretty and you are helps me in Term 1. You help me everythink of I learn and everythink too. I wish you are my teacher. -Thu Trang"
"I wish you beautiful and a good teacher for a year with children and strong. From, Son Ha"
"I wanted you to live forever. Love, Tuan Duc" (my favorite)
I'm not sure why, but all the cards I have received as of yet (and this includes Woman's Day cards) have something to do with staying beautiful and healthy. I think America could use a bit more of this mentality.
You should definitely get an Ao Dai! It would be so cool! You would look super adorable!
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