School Celebrations and Rock Climbing!

Saturday was our official "Start of School Ceremony" even though school started in July.. We had a very elaborate event that featured different student and teacher performances and speeches. To commemorate the event, Ms. Thuy (my English teacher) asked The Anh to design and draw a surround for our bulletin board at the back of the classroom. The only issue was that she gave him a day to complete it. He enlisted me to help and after working on it after school on Thursday, all day Friday, and in the evening on Friday, we were able to finish it. It ended up looking really cool and I think The

Anh was very proud of the end product.

On Saturday, we came to school and put up the last piece of the display before going out to the main courtyard where the event was being held. There was a lot of last minute set-up going on as people were arriving and the event started around 9. The event started with a speech from the principal; the speech was a little long and I could tell that other students were losing interest but when he finished, they brought out all of the 1st grade classes. They paraded around the courtyard with their teachers and were all very cute; I tried to get a picture of Anna's class but a man stepped right in front of where I was sitting so I couldn't really see her. After that they announced each class (we stood and clapped when they called out "10A1") and then there was a dance performance from students in the primary school. There were a couple songs after that including one sang by our teachers and then our class leader, Quy, made a speech. The event closed with the release of three huge bundles of balloons into the sky while some of the younger students sang an original song.

There were some field events afterward and I took part in a tug-of-war game with a few other students from my class. We lost but it was still a fun time and I enjoyed seeing some of the other kids compete as well. After the day finished around 11, I went back to the apartment and did laundry and math homework online. I was able to use Anh's old computer after I downloaded the class software onto it. When I opened it up and saw that it was WindowsXP I thought that it must have been from around the time I was in 2nd grade. Sure enough, the battery said 2005 on it which was the beginning of my 2nd grade year! The programs worked just fine (although the computer ran rather slowly) and I was able to complete my lessons.

My host family was downtown for the day doing their typical ceremonies at each house so I was alone in the apartment for dinner. I ended up getting noodles from a restaurant in the Ecopark that's owned by Dung's company. She called ahead of time so that I didn't have to pay (since she wasn't able to give me money for dinner) and ordered noodles with mushrooms, carrots, onions, and greens that tasted like bok choy. I took the food to go and enjoyed it in apartment since I felt a little weird about eating by myself in the restaurant. Dung and Anh got home later and Dung had brought me more food, sushi! I was already a little full but Dung insisted that I eat all the sushi so I had a second dinner/snack. She and Anh went back out at 9 for driving lessons but came home about half an hour later. Apparently the teacher had gotten drunk and was, of course, unable to teach them. Dung and I had quite a laugh about it.

On Sunday morning I slept in and made noodles for myself for breakfast. Art 9:45 I met The Anh at the bus stop and we went downtown to go rock climbing! This time, the traffic was way better and since I'd already been one time with my Vietnamese teacher, Vietclimb was very easy to get to. There were a few other climbers there including a trio from France, a man from Italy, a couple of Vietnamese kids, and a man I talked to in English (I didn't catch where he was from). Since it was The Anh's first time rock climbing, I showed him some techniques and told him about the route grades. It was nice to climb again and it was fun to try out a new gym. The only

downside is that the gym is pretty small so there aren't many problems to try and it takes a long time to get to. We still had a good workout though and when we were tired out, we left and walked back to the bus. When I got back, the first thing I did was shower since I had nearly sweat through my shirt while I was climbing, then I had a late lunch. Dung made spaghetti with a Bolognese-like sauce and I heated some up to eat while she and Anh watched a movie. When the movie finished, they went out for a driving lesson (the teacher wasn't drunk this time), and I worked on some homework and college app stuff until Anna and Dung's parents came back home from the city.

It's nearly dinnertime now and Dung and Anh just returned from their driving class. I'll have to hear how it went during dinner. Thanks for reading and have a great Sunday!