The little thing in life make a world of difference

Lily had a joint birthday party with our friend Karissa. We went to a coffee shop and took over the entire top floor.

I am not going to lie and say there are not frustrations here but no matter how many frustrations there may be, there are many more blessings. The other night, Lily and I stopped by a stand to get something to eat. The place we stopped at happened to be the corner where we get air for our tires but the man was not there and we had not stopped to get air. However, right as we were paying, the man pulled up on his motorbike, looked at our tires, gave a tisk tisk sound and put air in both of our tires. When we tried to pay he refused to take our money.

Another sweet story: Last week, Nicky, Lily and I took a day off to have a roommate date in Hoi An. After a day of interesting events...one being the lady, who was helping us get our clothes made, running off as soon as a man with a badge appeared. Another happened when we were at coffee. We were at a street side stand and after two minutes of being there I looked down only to find a half snout of a dog at our feet. Oh and a tip to all future travelers...bargain for your coffee before you drink it! We should have known before we sat down but we were tired and thirsty and the lady looked friendly, however, she tried to charge us 45,000 for three coffees! That means 15,000 per coffee and street coffee at that. Every morning we pay 18,000 total for three coffees! We told her no, that we lived here and 15,000 is a ridiculous amount. She finally went down to 10,000 per coffee and we rejoiced later at the fact that we talked a lady down AFTER we had had the coffee.

Yup...teeth and all

Anyway, this is a positive blog post about the good things...so after all the craziness of the morning, we went to a shop that we have been to multiple times. When we got there, our lady was helping other customers so we started perusing the shop and asking another lady the prices. As she was giving us a price, our lady looked at her and said that price was too high. After we had bought the entire store and were on our way out, she told us to wait. Lily had told her it was her birthday that day and so as a birthday present, she wrapped up a bowl and chopsticks.

For the longest time, Lily has wanted this picture and we finally got one! You can't see but she is sitting on the bicycle seat.

Later on in the day, we went back to her store because we wanted to buy earrings for a friend. I had bought three table runners earlier and when we returned she had me take each one out to see how long they were, since she sells them in two different sizes. Sure enough one was shorter than the rest and I had not known. She told me that right when I left, she panicked because she had sold me all three for the 2 meter price but I had taken one that was only 1 1/2 meters. She made me change the short one out before I left. Let me tell you, as a person who has been to Hoi An quite a few times, that NEVER happens!

When we got back from Hoi Am, our friend Van came with us to Mr. Pizza. In Van's words...."I don't know why, I just love it."

Another thing that brings me so much pleasure is emails and texts from my students. I have not taught one class since the Tet holiday which was in the beginning of February. One day at school I saw one of the students who stayed to ask me how I was because he had not seen me in a while. He asked when I would teach him again but I had to admit I did not know. Later that day, I got a message from a girl in that class saying that she missed me. I was smiling ear to ear for the rest of the day.

Last story of so many more that I could share...I have had a group of students since the beginning of my time here. They started at level 1 and some continued on to level 2. Their class ends this week but unfortunately, I do not get to teach them again...unless they move on to level 3. However, our last class was the perfect way to end...we might not have done a lot of learning but we definitely had fun. We learned about artistic talents but got into funny questions like if they were able to do an Elvis lip or raise one eyebrow. Instead of moving on to the last activity they started speaking Vietnamese to each other, come to find out they were trying to figure out a date that they could all come over to my house and cook for me. We agreed that this coming Sunday was good. The class ended with an invitation to to coffee on Saturday. I had planned to go out with them for International Women's Day but I ended up having to teach that night. They were upset I could not come but this Saturday is completely free and I promise to spend it with them.

I was unable to go to coffee with one of my classes but my last class, a new class, took me to coffee and bought me flowers

Shine

Shine! Wow, I cannot even express how excited I am by this program. We have just finished our second session and already, the girls are having a blast and connecting with us and each other.

Session one was an intro to the program and a lesson on nail care. In addition to getting to paint their nails, the girls learned about what nails say about our health and how to keep them healthy. They also learned about hands and how very valuable they are as a part of our body. The girls had a blast giving and receiving hand massages and getting their nails painted. I don’t know how often these girls get to be pampered but I think they definitely felt that way…I think the endless smiles and laughing proved that. We definitely had a good time with them too…even though it meant I had to paint nails. I felt bad for Lisa who fell victim to having me as the painter…luckily someone relieved me of my duties. I don’t know why I can paint my own nails but when it comes to painting others, I cannot paint within the lines no matter how hard I try.

Last night was our make-up session. The girls were even more excited about this session because some of them have NEVER worn make-up before. I think that is amazing because really, they are so beautiful without it but it was fascinating how little they knew about it. Nicky started the session with an activity to show them how each of them were unique. One girl signed her name while others tried to copy it…no one could. The lesson: everyone is unique and we should not try to copy others because we are the only us. I loved watching the girls as this was being explained because their faces lit up. One girl in particular had a huge smile on her face when she was told that she is valuable because she is unique. Other girls were nodding in agreement. Karissa led the session and read quotes from Audrey Hepburn about internal beauty…one stated, "And the beauty of a woman, with passing years only grows!" When asked what they thought that meant, one girl said that the beauty inside grows….Yup!

The rest of the session focused on taking care of our skin and keeping it healthy. We ended the session with actually getting to apply the make-up. Even though the session went almost an hour past our scheduled ending time, the girls were so into it. I even got to help out by putting eye shadow on one of the girls!

It was definitely a new experience for most of them and they seemed a little uncomfortable at first but once we started taking pictures, their confidence peaked and they wanted to get their pictures taken.

Next week we will be getting more in depth and I am excited for the transformations that will take place over the next seven weeks!