adventures with my Mom: Ben Tre chapter--HALLOWEEN

Hello all,

So this past week has been mostly a blur, my Mẹ left on Monday and since then I've been slogging through classes. Got a lot of stuff from the past week with my Mẹ to cover though, so let's get to it! This post covers my activities with my Mẹ in Bến Tre.

Mẹ landed in Bến Tre on Sunday the 28th, and we immediately got her settled in to a nice hotel. The next day she woke up early, and we rode on my electric bicycle through town straight to class. That began a whirlwind four days that simply whizzed by. I'm going to try and just touch on the highlights, otherwise we'll be here all day.

Summary:
1. Meeting all the important people in my life in Bến Tre
2. Mẹ's talk on education in the United States
3. Fabulous lunches in My Tho, Phung Island and Mrs. Trang's home
4. Observing my classes
5. Halloween. HALLOWEEN HALLOWEEN HALLOWEEN.

So you know, read through the whole thing or skip to what sounds cool. Read the Halloween part at least, otherwise you aren't my friend anymore.

1. Meeting people

First of all, my Mẹ had to meet all the important people in my life here in Bến Tre. So, in true fashion we had a big meeting welcoming my mother to Bến Tre College. They were all very impressed upon meeting her, my Mẹ speaks great Vietnamese so she was able to fit right into the conversations smoothly and diplomatically, and everyone wanted to ask her questions. It was really great to see.

Vice-Rector Phuoc presenting flowers to Mẹ

Vice-Rector Phuoc giving a speech

Mẹ introducing herself

The electronic display welcoming my Mẹ, Tràn Vũ Thu Hâng (Thu-Hang to Americans) to Bến Tre 

College.

Vice-Rector Phuoc giving a gift to my Mẹ

Mr. Luan giving his gift

Mẹ signing the guest book of Bến Tre College

2. Mẹ's presentation 

A bit about Mẹ's qualifications, she is a former teacher who taught kindergarten for almost her entire career in the Boston area.  She now teaches part-time at the Saturday Course, a weekend enrichment course for high-achieving middle-school students held at Milton Academy in Milton. 

Mẹ is also a mentor at Wheelock College through Wheelock College's Education Mentor Corps program. Mentor teachers help provide guidance and advice to new teachers in the Boston area. With her background in education, people at Bến Tre College were very interested in what she had to say about the U.S. Educational System.

Mẹ tries to figure out her many computers

Speaking

Her audience

Watching in rapt attention

Mẹ talked about different classroom management techniques as well as different ways to draw on prior knowledge. She also discussed different specific questions about the U.S. Education system, like whether education is mandatory. She did this almost entirely in Vietnamese, and I could tell that after her one hour talk was done the teachers wish it wouldn't end. 

Mẹ giving a Boston guidebook to Vice-Rector Phuoc

More gift-giving

Picture with everybody!

3. A few special meals.

Now if you've been following this blog at all, you should know that any big event in Vietnam leads to many delicious meals. So it should be no surprise to say that this past week my Mẹ and I were fed to an extent that I did not think was even possible. A few meals stand out as particularly noteworthy. First, we went on a boat to Phung Island, a beautiful island in the middle of the Mekong river. 

Taking the boat over

On the docks

A particularly amusing feature of this restaurant is the monkey bridge that goes across a big man-made pond. Tourists can cross the bridge for fun, and it's totally safe...but it feels a bit unstable. 

Walking out on the bridge

Just chilling

Mẹ wonders when I am going to slip and fall into the water

At dinner

The food at dinner was fantastic, and the island is unbelievably beautiful. It was a very peaceful and relaxing lunch with one notable exception. I was offered live coconut worms as a particular delicacy of Bến Tre. Adelina, if you are reading this I have no idea how you managed to eat four of these. I politely declined. 

DO NOT EAT THESE. DO NOT EAT THESE. DO NOT EAT THESE. gaah. Nightmare fuel.

Another highlight was going away from Bến Tre for a bit, going up to My Tho to visit Lindsay! We only got to see Lindsay for a little bit, but it's always great to see her. We had lunch with her in a very nice restaurant in My Tho, and my Mẹ was thrilled to meet the Fulbright ETA who I see the most on a regular basis.

In My Tho

At lunch with Lindsay

Later in the week we had lunch at Co Trang's parent's house. Co Trang is my Vietnamese teacher, and I had been invited there before but hadn't been able to attend. I was thrilled at the possibility of going, and I really pushed for us to visit. I also knew Co Trang's parents would be cooking bánh xeo, which is legit possibly my favorite Vietnamese dish so I was frankly watering at the mouth to go.

The road to Co Trang's house gets rural pretty fast

This house has been in Co Trang's family's possession for generations

I got to meet Co Trang's father, who speaks good English and is a very friendly and funny man

In the kitchen where the delicious bánh xeo is made

At the family table

Co Trang explains the finer points of Vietnamese grammar while Co Y looks on

Lunch was amazing, and it was really wonderful to be part of such a friendly household. Everyone--Co Trang's brother, his wife, Co Trang's mother and father, the two adorable children running around--all of them were so friendly and welcoming. The kids got a big kick out of reading the English alphabet out and saying certain English words from their textbooks (with perfect pronunciation, I must say). Probably the best moment came when Co Trang was teasing me about life as Bến Tre's only foreigner. 

Without missing a beat, Co Trang's father broke out into song, serenading me with Bobby Vinton's "Mr. Lonely." Surprised, I managed to recover enough to harmonize and finish out the song in style. We got a round of applause from the family.

Mẹ wanted a picture with a real Bến Tre coconut tree

With Co Trang

The whole family, Mẹ and me

4. Observing classes

As my Mẹ is a former teacher, I must say I was a little bit nervous about having her observe my classes. You know, having your mother look over what you're doing is always a bit nerve-wracking, but when she has first hand-experience in the exact field you are in? Gaah. 

But I was also really excited about having Mẹ see my classes, because frankly teaching these kids is what my life here is all about, and I wanted them to see her and for her to see them. In each of my classes I asked Mẹ to introduce herself. For the second and third year students she did it in English. For my first year students she spoke in English first, then switched to Vietnamese. Overall she was able to see all of my classes except for one of my first year classes.

Doing a sentence strip activity

Mr. Tuan: "Jefferson, what are we doing today?"

Jefferson: "Huh. I have no idea."

Tell your own scary story

Teaching the 1st years a unit on love

They responded with giggles, unsurprisingly

Teaching them the chorus of "As Long As You Love Me" by the Backstreet Boys 

2nd year listening, unit on climate change

Going over climate change reading

3rd year speaking, going over a job interview worksheet

Supervising

Practice interviews

One class of the 2nd years with Mr. Tuan

The second class of 2nd years with Mr. Hoang

My 3rd year students (about half of them, the rest had to be at teacher training)

I don't know why we didn't take a picture with the 1st years. Oops. It was wonderful to have my Mẹ oversee some of my classes, the students definitely got a big kick out of her being there. It was also great to have someone to take pictures, because that's obviously not something I can do in class. I think Mẹ liked my teaching style, but she hasn't given me feedback yet so I can't be sure...

5. Halloween

Oh man, Halloween. This was freaking amazing. So, I had been planning a Halloween party for about two weeks before Mẹ showed up. I wanted to do a big Halloween party like the ones we had in my neighborhood when I was a little kid: lots of games, costumes, scary stories, jack-o-lanterns, the works. I sent a proposal to the school for approval, and they were very supportive. We sketched out a rough plan that involved Halloween games, a costume contest and playing some Halloween songs. 

Halloween planning began with a shopping trip to buy pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns. I was unsure how well this would work because Vietnamese pumpkins are not the same as American ones, the Vietnamese ones are smaller and thicker. Several people I talked to were unsure about the feasibility of doing this, but I thought we should give it a shot anyways.

At the market

Picking pumpkins

I went shopping with several of my students, and with Mrs. Chau Anh, who I would be working with on English Club for the next month. I had never worked with Mrs. Chau Anh before but she was incredibly helpful, and we ended up buying a lot of pumpkins and candles as well.

Then it was time to settle down for the moment of truth. Armed with a few rusty knives and about a dozen pumpkins, it was time to show these kids the American art of pumpkin carving. I'm by no means an excellent pumpkin carver, but I have carved my fair share of jack-o-lanterns. So, time to teach these kids how this is done...

"Okay, so first take your knife..."

"Then...yeah, cut off the top like that"

"Okay, um...yeah, go ahead and cut out eyeholes now"

"Hey wait, are you guys even listening to me?"

"Okay, next you should...guys? I'm trying to tell you what to do here..."

"No but seriously guys, listen to what I'm trying to tell you..."

"WAIT HOW DID YOU DO THAT?"

"AND THAT?"

"Okay, I definitely did not teach you how to do that"

"You know what, I'm going to stand off in the corner, you guys got this."

Maybe that isn't exactly how the pumpkin carving went down, but it sure felt a hell of a lot like it. I gave them the basic idea, if that, and then these guys went off and running. I looked away for one second, looked back and I saw this:

I carved the eyes for one of these. That is all. Everything else was entirely my students

But of course, jack-o-lanterns are only part of the fun for Halloween. There were a lot of other decorations and other things to prepare for the party, and luckily I had a cadre of eager volunteers.

Making paper masks

More mask making

Drawing the donkey for pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey

Tying together rubber bands for mask strings

My Halloween crew looking real scary

Light a jack-o-lantern and grab some paper, got some old-fashioned advertising

So, the night of the party I was pretty stoked. Got back, started setting up. We lit the jack-o-lanterns inside the hall, cleared out the benches and started setting up our games. I threw together a Halloween playlist, started blasting it out of the speakers, and watched as people started to trickle in. 

The party was an absolute blast. I was told we would have about fifty people. We had at least two hundred. Students, teachers and staff, many of them bringing their families. It was supposed to be just Bến Tre College students, but I recognized a handful of high school students as well. Most of the college students were from the English Department, but a lot of them weren't. There were tons of students there who didn't speak any English, and there were probably another fifty students staring in from the windows, too shy to come in but wanting to watch anyways. 

This should give you some idea of how many people there were

Packed hall, with more people outside

We started off with three games that people were circulating around--bobbing for apples, pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey and donut (cracker) on a string. All three of them were big hits. 

pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey

Mr. Duy tries his luck

So close and yet so far! His students heckle and cheer in the background

Someone else tries their luck

Bobbing for apples gathered a big crowd

It wasn't long before people were wandering around with soaking wet hair, splashing water everywhere

"I got three!" one of my students exclaimed excitedly. Baller. I am impressed

Co Hoang's son tries his hand at eating a cracker

Confusion in the lines

Trúc successfully gets a cracker

Then, everyone sat down and I announced a costume competition. Each class of English students put together a costume for one or two of their classmates. A handful of the teachers also put together costumes. There would be prizes handed out for the best costume, and it was up to me to award the prizes and to run the whole competition. 

It should be stated at this point that I really had no idea what I was doing. I had been planning the games and the pumpkin carving so thoroughly that I totally forgot I was supposed to be MCing a costume contest. Also I've never been the MC before. Oh, and I was speaking English to a Vietnamese crowd, using shoddy equipment. And again, this was for over 200 people. Lordy lordy. I think I managed to get through without embarrassing myself to much.

Halfway through the show I slipped out, pretended to get attacked, then came back in my costume. I left wearing an ordinary red t-shirt, then came back as a wolfman. Off-stage I put on fake nails, a de-cut shirt and splashed fake blood all over my face. Cheesy as hell, but the kids seemed to get a kick out of it.

The costumes I saw were fantastic. These kids really put a lot of effort into their costumes, and so many of them looked truly inspiring. 

MCing the costume contest

With all the contestants on stage

With some of the contestants

A whole bunch of scary here

One of my favorites, a mummy costume. They just wrapped Quyen in about 20 rolls of toilet paper. 

A disturbed spirit and Minnie Mouse

A witch

Three of the teachers dressed up and did the chicken dance on stage. It was awesome

  

After the costume contest was done, we went back to the games, and then it was time for clean up and of course, more pictures.

With Mẹ, Mrs. Chau Anh and Mrs. Hoang. Wouldn't have been able to do it without any of these three lovely ladies. 

This for me is one of the coolest pictures of Halloween

I saw students taking pictures everywhere with the jack-o-lanterns. That for me was one of the coolest parts of Halloween. Here in America, people don't really take pictures with jack-o-lanterns that often, holding them in their hands. Over here, kids were so fascinated with the jack-o-lanterns. 

"Cho bí!" I heard, over and over again: "Give me the pumpkin!" always cried by a student brandishing a camera at their friend. I felt like ten thousand pictures were taken that night, and each one made me feel like I'd brought a little bit more Halloween, and a little bit of America, to Vietnam. 

Happy Halloween y'all

So overall it was a fantastic trip to Bến Tre, we really got a lot done. My Mẹ was able to give a talk, meet everyone I work with, observe my classes, explore Bến Tre a little and help me with a huge Halloween party as well. Apparently the staff at the hotel she was staying at spent the next morning talking about how awesome the party sounded and how much they wished they could go. Baller.

Hopefully Mẹ can come by Bến Tre again soon, because everyone here loved her, and I hope she had a good time as well! 

Outside the college

So, that is all of what we did in Bến Tre. Soon I'll get a post up about our adventures in Phu Quoc and Ho Chi Minh City!

Stay tuned!

Peace,

Jefferson

P.S. Wow, that was a lot, I'm kind of exhausted. Well done, getting through all of this. You know, for reading all of this, I think you guys deserve another special picture. 

DEMON KITTY SAYS HAPPY HALLOWEEN, FOOLS!!!

P.P.S. Thanks for reading, talk to y'all later!