traditional vietnamese dress is still worn. the ao dai.

the ao dai is a type of dress worn by the women of vietnam. most of the girls wear it to class and, if you’ve ever had the privilege of seeing one in action, it’s a most seductive sight.

the girls are clad head to toe in cloth. the cloth that the students wear is a white, patterned variety. teachers wear whatever pattern they well please. the bottom half is a pair of loose fitting pants. they are not unlike normal pants. they are loose and wave happily in the wind. the top is something else entirely.

the collar is high and stretches up to the jawbone. it is straight and holds its place. it has a small, v-like cut in the middle. the cut doesn’t drop more than the length of the collar. the sleeves extend to the wrists. the front and back of the top part seem to flow forever. they are long strands of cloth that fall below the knees. the cloth is wide and square. it flows in front and in back like banners. the sides are sliced up to the top of the waist. two separate pieces of cloth lead and follow the wearer.

i have no idea why it is so spellbinding. i have no idea why it captures the imagination so. when girls ride bicycles they have to sit on the back half of the top part and hold the front part of the top half in their right or left hand.

it is only a pair of pants and a shirt but it is vietnam. it defines so much. it is conservative yet flashy. the girls are quite yet proud. nothing seems to make sense and all is lost in a complex wave of cloth.

geoffrey chaucer wrote the canterbury tales in 1387. well, some people say it was earlier and some people say it was later. no one’s really sure. they do know that it was one of the first examples of an oral tradition morphing into a literary one. he was (is) an important person.

today i taught about chaucer for four hours. the canterbury tales are a series of stories told by pilgrims on their way to the cathedral in canterbury. there are thirty pilgrims and most tell a tale. we are focusing on the tale of the pardoner. his tale is about three young men who are trying to find death. instead, they find gold. they end up killing each other.

i taught about medieval stuff. today i explained why something written over 600 years ago was important for vietnamese students to understand. i don’t know if i even convinced myself.

i was met with blank stares; sometimes a furrowed brow.

it’s quite difficult to explain the importance of the catholic church in the fourteenth century to these students. there’s a large, catholic church in town but it is grey and ominous. at night there’s a cross that lights up on its steeple. it can plainly be seen from miles around. i can easily see it from the roof of my building. it lights up pink. it’s a pink cross that shines as a beacon. neon pink.

explaining what indulgences are is also quite a task. explaining what knights, friars, monks and squires are requires a good deal of forethought.

my teaching was a whirlwind of hand gestures, emotional exclamations and large dusts of chalk dust. the board was fully covered with dates and names a number of times. how much of it was absorbed is yet to be truly known.

we’ve covered chaucer and move on to shakespeare. i think i’m learning more than i’m teaching.

geoffrey chaucer wrote the canterbury tales in 1387. well, some people say it was earlier and some people say it was later. no one’s really sure. they do know that it was one of the first examples of an oral tradition morphing into a literary one. he was (is) an important person.

today i taught about chaucer for four hours. the canterbury tales are a series of stories told by pilgrims on their way to the cathedral in canterbury. there are thirty pilgrims and most tell a tale. we are focusing on the tale of the pardoner. his tale is about three young men who are trying to find death. instead, they find gold. they end up killing each other.

i taught about medieval stuff. today i explained why something written over 600 years ago was important for vietnamese students to understand. i don’t know if i even convinced myself.

i was met with blank stares; sometimes a furrowed brow.

it’s quite difficult to explain the importance of the catholic church in the fourteenth century to these students. there’s a large, catholic church in town but it is grey and ominous. at night there’s a cross that lights up on its steeple. it can plainly be seen from miles around. i can easily see it from the roof of my building. it lights up pink. it’s a pink cross that shines as a beacon. neon pink.

explaining what indulgences are is also quite a task. explaining what knights, friars, monks and squires are requires a good deal of forethought.

my teaching was a whirlwind of hand gestures, emotional exclamations and large dusts of chalk dust. the board was fully covered with dates and names a number of times. how much of it was absorbed is yet to be truly known.

we’ve covered chaucer and move on to shakespeare. i think i’m learning more than i’m teaching.

during the dry season, the sunsets are incredible. they are breathtaking. they are all postcards. they all make you wish you had your camera.

they are blood red, fire orange and slowly fade to majestic purple. the dust rises up into the atmosphere. the dust and dirt makes them beautiful. the same dust and dirt that is thrown in your eyes when you’re driving and clings to your feet like a second layer of skin.

the sun slowly moves down to where the earth meets the sky. it hovers and then falls beyond. it stares at you as if falls and you can’t help but stare back. we are all moths and it is our summer porch light.

the year of the goat has been upon us for almost an entire month. we celebrated by eating goat. i could think of no better way to further my understanding of the year to come.

it was a combination of roasted goat and goat in a hot-pot (pot of boiling vegetables). a small, camping-type stove is brought to your table and you’re appointed chef. the goat meat came sliced thinly.

it jumped and screamed on the grill. it tasted like beef with thick skin. skin that tasted something like rubber and plastic. it seemed to wallow in your mouth for hours as you mindlessly chomp.

there was a sign on the wall that said something about fresh bear. i asked some of my vietnamese friends but no one could thoroughly explain. they said that there was a bear in the back and that, if you wanted, you could pay for one of its kidneys. it didn’t make too much sense to me. i wrote the word down and came home. the word was bile.

you could go to this fine establishment and order fresh bear bile. i guess it has some medicinal value. the bear bile was fresh as fresh can be. it was important that you saw them extract it from the bear because, if you didn’t, it could be watered down. watered down bear bile. who would want such a thing?

so, evidently, you can walk into the back and see a slumbering bear (i’d imagine tied to some sort of a log with a chain playing with an old car tire much like a bear in a zoo). you’d then watch them stick a needle somewhere in the bear and remove some sort of liquid that, i assume, is bear bile. i guess it looks fluorescent green; something like liquefied kryptonite. i don’t know if they put the bear to sleep or not but they probably do. either that or they get a few guys to hold him down properly.

then you do something with the bile. i don’t know, maybe you drink it. maybe you inject it into yourself. maybe you make some sort of bear bile martini. maybe you toss it over your right shoulder (or is it left?) for good luck much like salt.

well, in any case, we ate goat to celebrate the year of the goat. it’s a shame that i’ll only be here for the year of the goat and monkey because i’m really interested to see how this whole bear bile system works.