Coming home rather late last night, I decided to go to bed early to get some much needed rest. This post covers yesterday's activities. To note, I am writing this as Min, the little white dog, is chewing at my shirt.
Today was a rather unspected break in the week for me. Mrs. Hong told me the night before when I came over to her house in the center that I would not be teaching on Tuesday and that I was to tell the children about that I would be busy tomorrow. My uncle also told me that we would be going somewhere tomorrow with Mrs. Hong's family. Where could that be?
I woke up at eight o'clock in the morning the latest I've ever woken up at here, knowing that I would not need to teach class in the morning and also because was not able to sleep as well as I would have liked. While I lie in bed that morning, I heard noises of children leaving the older girls' house and the older boys' house. Oh right! Today was the day that many of the students were leaving to return to their hometowns.
I bolted out of bed to greet the remaining children who were beginning to leave. Ron, one of my brothers, walked out with all his stuff and waved. I followed. "I'll walk you out" I said. So we chatted about his home and how long he would be gone. "My home is not far from here by bus and I am only going for fifteen days" he told me. He hopped onto the bike of one of his brothers and they rode off to the busstop. Today about fifteen of the children left the center to return to their home towns.
So there was the seven of us remaining in my house. Trieu, Tam, Hai, Manh, Bao, Loi and me. Compared to previous mornings, today's was rather quiet and peaceful, as many of the children decided to stay inside, amidst a rather cloudy sky. I took the opportunity to do some reading and look up on some Vietnamese history. And there I sat, from about eight to three in the afternoon, eating, reading, sleeping, hanging out with my brothers, playing with the dog, and basically relaxing for the day. It felt rather strange to not have any obligations today other than to relax, as the day before I had wrote out a lesson plan for the Middle School and University students. Nevertheless, it was probably needed anyway.
Three o'clock rolled by and my uncle entered my room. "you ready?" he asked, "you look like you just woke up." I nodded and grabbed my bag with a change of clothes, sunglasses, money, flip-camera, and also grabbed my helmet for the motorbike. We hopped on and I said goodbye to all my brother's and my host mother. And so we rode off into a still cloudy, peaceful day.
Oh... I see. We pulled out in front of a four star hotel about thirty minutes away from the center. Mrs. Hong had invited me and my uncle to come and relax with her family to, quite frankly, get to know each other better and relax. And we did just that. The hotel was wide and open, lush with green, and surrounded by beautiful views of the beach and ponds that stretched out in all directions. There was love music being played, as well as the sweet smell of flowers everywhere. I looked in the distance and saw a bride and groom taking photos. It was cute. Me and my uncle went over to reception and had a receptionist take us over to Mrs. Hong's room. Her room was on the second floor of a nearby building, overseeing the whole hotel site and more beautiful vistas. Her daughter was also there, relaxing and watching TV about some music channel. She had finally finished all her university tests, which composed of literature and four other music related courses. She was applying to the Academy of Music to hopefully become a professor in music in the future. She and her mother are pretty sure that she got accepted so her demeanor was nothing more than content, as she was still tired from all the studying. So there we were, all of us sitting in their relaxing air conditioned room, talking about different things, joking, laughing, and finally we decided to go out to the pool relax.
Mrs. Hong's husband joined us then, splashing at us in the pool, and having an overall happy outlook on the day, as did the whole family. Me and our uncle often talked about how cheery Mrs. Hong family was, as they talked of many things, laughing here and there, and staying happy through the times. It was the first time I swam in a pool for a long time. It was relaxing, laying back into the water and letting the stress from my legs and hands fade out. After about an hour or so in the pool, we decided to go up and get changed to go out for dinner. What a dinner it was.
Me and my uncle hopped onto one motorbike, while the Hong family hopped onto another, following us over to the restaurant. By this time it was around five o'clock or so. The restaurant was near the same road that my uncle took to go back to my home village, and overlooked a beautiful vista of ponds and greenery. It was an outdoor restaurant, and we hopped onto a little hut constructed on the pond. We ordered beer, coca cola, fresh squid, snails, crab soup, noodles, and even a guitar. It was an intesting dinner, as our waiter and Mrs. Hong's husband sang songs and joked. Mrs. Hong and her daughter also sang, me clapping along and playing percussion with the various eating utensils next to me. What a hoot! We laughed, sang, joked, and relaxed in the cooling wind on that little hut. After about two hours at the restaurant, we waved each other off, and me and my uncle rode back to the center.
And I finally returned, smiling over the past day of relaxation, but also tired after swimming for so long and full of food. I greeted my brothers and host mother and went off into my room. I actually was able to call my half sisters, Quin and Linh, who live in Nha Trang, south of Hue quite a distance. This was the first time I ever spoke to them, only knowing them through my father and also through Facebook. We talked for a long time. We spoke of my father, his life, their lives, and also mine. It was a pleasant surprise to the night and after saying goodbye 'till the next day. And that is where this day ended. Peace and rest carried me into the night.
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