Monday, March 17, 2014

I woke up, thinking Patrick and I would go visit Reunification Palace, but then I was hit with a curveball – a last-minute email saying my middle school students start exams next week and that this week I must do exam review and preparation to get them ready.  So I had to scrap all the lesson plans I had made for Monday and Tuesday (on Monday, a few hours before teaching!) and figure out how the exams would be conducted and what I would have to do to review with them and to do their listening and speaking exams! Ugh! But it worked out fine and I had a great afternoon teaching.  One of my Vietnamese assistants actually came up to me afterwards and asked: “You love teaching, don’t you? ... I can tell.  And the students really like you.” It was so sweet of her to say!

Patrick picked me up (my private xe om driver haha) and brought me home because we were invited to have dinner and hang out with our house-mates again! The Vietnamese mother and her daughter in our house cooked up a Vietnamese dinner and invited us and a few of her new foreign (other expats) over, so it was great to meet some new people! We hung out having a couple drinks on our top floor balcony.   

We also got to learn how to put together Vietnamese spring rolls (fresh ones). Our Vietnamese friend (Let’s call her “T” J) prepared the ingredients beforehand, so it was quite simple. The key things to remember are: making sure you wet the rice paper sheet just enough, remembering all the ingredients (there are lots!) and wrapping it tightly enough without ripping the paper, so it stays together well.

Inside T's spring roll was: Rice noodles, lettuce/greens, herbs like cilantro and basil, green onion, tofu, carrot, cucumber and then the protein (pork and shrimp OR fried strips of fish). It’s not the typical spring roll – she said she doesn't use the same ingredients as many vendors and that she uses less noodles, because that’s how she prefers it.  They were actually my favourite spring rolls in Vietnam thus far!  We dipped it in a mixture of a thick sweet/soy dip with crushed peanuts inside.

My first (sad-looking) attempt at rolling a spring roll! Tasted great, though!

Spring roll assembly line

All rolled-up!

T cooked up a delicious Vietnamese meal – spring rolls with dip, a veggie, pork and tofu stir-fry and Vietnamese-style fried banana fritters. T is an excellent cook and so incredibly kind!

Dinner is served!

After eating, I had to dash out for my private lesson, which ended up being at a burger king haha! (My student hadn’t eaten dinner yet!) Did you know ice-cream cones at Burger King cost only 3,000vnd ($0.15) here?! They even topped it with rainbow sprinkles! Who knew?!