-^-for posterity-^-

we've been evicted from our home. we can't go back for three weeks. the windows are all boarded up with brown wood. the doors have all been fastened with new padlocks. they only can be unlocked on the inside. there is a purple piece of tape that stretches around the building and many hand written signs that say, "cam vao" (don't go in).

was it potato bugs? was it termites? was it a new strain of some odd disease?

oh no. it was the entrance exams for the university.

to be accepted to attend university in vietnam you have to pass the entrance exam. about ten thousand people will take it and about two thousand will pass. the exam is so secret and so important that they are going to quarantine off about fifteen people in my home. these people will not be allowed to leave the building for three weeks. they will be monitored by police and security. they will grade the tests. they have the test answers. they are there to make sure that no cheating takes place.

this exam is taken so seriously that my classes for the week have been cancelled. the university is going to be full of perspective students, of which, only 20% will attend next year. the test is so difficult that some students take a year off to prepare. some students go to special entrance exam preparation courses and one of my students told me a story about one of her friends. she fainted while taking the exam. she failed.

the test administrators have not been sequestered yet. i surmise they will arrive in a large envoy with lights and sirens. i bet they have a bus with metal meshing on the windows that's driven by a surly man smoking a cigar.