Last Week of "Summer"

I've called this the last week of "summer" because though it's technically summer, we still have to go to school... but I guess the past two weeks of eight-period school days of English, Literature, Math, P.E, Art, and "soft skills" didn't count as school.

Anyway, the real school year starts on Monday which I am a little nervous for because there are 12 subjects split among 8 periods, each day having a different schedule from the previous day. These 12 classes include the ones I'm in now (minus art) as well as Geography, History, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, a class dubbed "QP" which apparently translates to "National Defense", and Computer class (which may be like computer science, I'm not really sure). I honestly don't know how the school expects students to learn three sciences at once with no labs. I'll just have to go with it and hope that I can understand each subject..

On Monday we welcomed a famous poet and listened to him speak about his experiences in writing poetry and how his life is reflected in his work. Though I couldn't understand most of the

presentation, I sat and listened and enjoyed the moments when students stood up to present their own poetry or artwork for him. One student gave him a portrait and another recited one of his poems; when the student forgot the words, the poet helped him remember. A couple students - boys - even rapped for a minute or so, though it was more of a fun joke than a serious performance. Later in the day we all took an English placement test to split the class based on fluency. I struggled a bit with a few of the grammar questions since the public school system doesn't teach grammar but I still scored the highest in the class with a 9.5 (out of 10).

On Tuesday I had traditional Vietnamese noodles with chicken for breakfast. At home in the US, my dad calls them "cellophane noodles" and we eat them with vinegar sauce but in Vietnam they're eaten in a broth with cilantro and other greens.

At school we had Literature PE, English, and soft skills. When I got home from school I was locked out of the apartment because Dung's mom had left and taken both keys with her! I ended up going to Dung's office which is in the Ecopark and I waited there until the driver returned with the second key. Other than that, Tuesday was pretty uneventful..

On Wednesday I got to go to school late because there was a big test in the morning that I was exempt from. So, at 10:15 I went to school and studied English and soft

skills until there was another test I didn't have to take in the afternoon. During that test, I went to the library to read and discovered that they have the entire Harry Potter series in Vietnamese! When I become more fluent, I will definitely be checking out those books.

Thursday morning started with P.E. and no teacher.. Instead we had free time outside where I got to throw around the Frisbee with my friend Ha, who asked me to call her Hannah, as The Anh (pronounced Te Ain) asked me to call him Gypsy. After P.E. we studied English, Literature, and soft skills.

This morning was Friday, I made myself a fried egg for breakfast which reminded me of home. After breakfast I went to school where we studied English, Literature, and P.E. In Literature class I was invited to join a group's skit for the class. Apparently our skit is about a woman who has to sell her daughter (me) to pay for an expensive tax she can't afford. My only job is to say a few minimal lines and then cry about the prospect of being sold. I'm going to Nhi's house tonight to meet the rest of the group for our skit practice. Wish me luck!

Now I'm off to eat dinner; the pictures are of the path to school, my classroom, the view from the apartment, the school, my room, and a typical dinner (greens, meat and/or tofu, soup, and rice).

One more thing, if you've left a comment on the site, thank you! I love hearing back from people and don't worry if I don't respond, I just can't figure out how to write back when I'm on the site as a viewer.

Pictures are on the next page...


Thanks for reading!