Better days, American food, and more nuoc mia

Well, the swelling is down in my nose; of course, I have two nice shiners now. I took pictures today, and I have the cable for my camera, but no camera. Way to go, Franny. Oh well. LOL. Yesterday was a "blah" day. We were all tired, I was sore, and we had two classes to teach. Two classes that seemed to take forever. LOL
Here's the good news: Yesterday, Andrea, Eleisa, and I made the most delicious lunch ever! Egg noodles with cheese sauce. Real cheese sauce: cream cheese, cheddar cheese, gouda melted together with a bit of milk over some nice noodles.... Trust me, after weeks of rice and fish sauce and various strange things, cheesy noodles become the epitome of fine dining. We made one big plateful, grabbed forks (FORKS! Not chopsticks, FORKS!) and dug in from the same plate. We cleaned it out between the three of us. :) And for dessert, we had watermelon. Oh, we were some happy American girls last night... We still have a jar of spaghetti sauce that we have to use, and believe me, we'll be happy to use it.
My first class yesterday invited me out for nuoc mia. There is one Korean student in that class, and three Vietnamese, so we have to speak English, and they're really curious about one another, which is good. We went to a different nuoc mia stand and sat down to enjoy our drinks and chat. We were late after the break, but we were totally practicing our English, so I'm okay with that. :)
My second class was a bit rougher. There are way too many high school boys in there - this is the class where I had to give the hitting talk. Today there was no hitting, but seven of the boys in the back totally did not do their work. So I stood by them and watched while they worked to make sure that they actually did the partner work. I hate grading, but when kids don't learn for the sake of learning, it's the only real incentive they have to actually DO the work. Blech.... My students can be lazy, but 80% of the time they at least START their work. These boys did not even do that...
After class, we walked back to the hotel and sat around in my room eating bits of food - crackers, yogurt, cookies - until Thanh broke out the icecream. Then we ate icecream and talked about sandwiches... Mmmm... Delicious sandwiches.... We hooked up my ipod to Eleisa's speakers and listened to music and clowned around. It was fun and we needed that time to unwind and refresh.
This morning we had a Vietnamese lesson, and we learned a children's song. Fun stuff, huh? That's totally the way to learn a language: singing songs. LOL It's a song about kids going to school and not crying while their mothers tend to the fruit trees and their fathers work at the factory and the grandfather plows the field. I love that I can pick out the family words and put things together :).
Speaking of families, my dad called this morning. I was so happy to talk to my Stinky (which is what I affectionately call my dad) because I haven't spoken to him since I left California. I was missing my mother tongue so much... Speaking of the mother tongue, I get to teach the teachers Spanish today. I am beyond excited, but also nervous, because I've never taught a language from scratch. I don't know if that makes sense: they have NO knowledge of Spanish beyond "te amo", so I'm starting from the ground up. But I'm just excited to speak my language, so I'm looking forward to it.
Finally, this is our last weekend as a foursome. This weekend, the Hanoi team is coming down to Vinh to teach here with us at ASEM School. I'm looking forward to seeing them, but I'm sure that the transition will be a bit difficult. Now there will be eight foreign teachers at this school; that's a whole lot for a small city like Vinh, but it will make our Sunday meetings a bit more like home, especially since Steven will be bringing a guitar.
Well, we've got lunch with one of Andrea's classes today at twelve, and after that, we're going to MaxiMark to do more grocery shopping (that yogurt goes quickly) and see my supermarket boyfriend. Also, we will be picking up our Ao Dai, after which I hope to post a picture that I will call "Ao dais and black eyes". I thought of that this morning while talking ao dais with Eleisa and we were highly amused, first because it rhymes and second because it's true.
I'm serious, these are some nasty black eyes I've got going on. The good news is that my nose looks MUCH better. It's back down to a normal size, though it's still bruised and scratched. At least I don't have as much blood in there anymore. (gross)

Oh! My mission for today is to find more things to be thankful for, so here are a few things that I appreciate:
-My tan. Who cares if they don't think brown skin is beautiful? I love my brown skin!
-Spanish lessons. Es que me hace falta mi propio idioma...
-My teammates: Andrea because she is funny, Thanh because she speaks Vietnamese, Eleisa because she is a nursing student and can fix us up. I am eternally grateful for these three women here with me, and that's not even a stretch.
-Nuoc mia. I am thankful because it is delicious and sweet, but mostly because it is COLD.
-Bottled water. It's refreshing and cold.
-Yogurt (Sua Chua). It settles my stomach, it fills me up, and it's cold. (Are we noticing a trend yet?)
-Phone calls from my dad. Nuff said.
-Maximark. Because they sell peanut butter and spaghetti sauce and bread and all other foods that remind me of home.
-God's protection. Seriously, because even though I complain, this could be much worse. And He's been so good....
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