TET celebrations

Plans and preparations are under way for the TET holiday and celebrations. The streets, shops and houses are all decorated with beautiful yellow potted daisies and chrysanthemums and red lanterns. This morning bright and early, 5:00 am, a group were out practicing a dragon dance on my street. They played varying instruments, that ranged in sound from a brass band to local Vietnamese instruments with a sort of harpsichord sound. Men wore red Aoi dais, others in white danced. On Friday a group of us are going into town to watch the parade and see all the flowers. Ugyen Hue pronounced Win Way is one of the main streets and apparently the whole street is decorated in flowers.
Last night all the teaching assistants took all the teachers out to a Vietnamese restaurant for a buffet meal. I thoroughly enjoyed sampling lots of different foods, for example sour mango and chilli sauce, pork dumplings, sweet potato very similar to our kumara, bananas and coconut tapioca mix. Yummy. Then of course were the other foods I wasn’t so keen to sample!

Following Vietnamese custom TET is a time of giving. I teach a wee boy in Year 4, Long. His parents have sent along gift baskets for all his teachers. I feel really humble. My basket included a bottle of Red wine surrounded by crackers, iced tea, dehydrated scrimps cheese Orios and chocolate. Teachers are held in high esteem here, for doing a job we all enjoy. The willingness of the students, their cultural diversity and experiences make the job so interesting. I am enjoying being immersed in the Vietnamese culture.