March 12, 2012

Ron bought me this bouquet for International Women's Day on the street on the way home from school. There were 2 young girls selling flowers and he selected any kind that he wanted. They assembled them, put a bow around them and charged him 10.000 dong. That's 50 cents! He paid them $1.00 and they giggled and jumped up and down!

I made sure I put them in the refrigerator when the maids came so they didn't think it was for them!

The International Women's Day celebration at the University was very elaborate. They had a seat of honor for Ron in the front row and there was music, dancing, singing and modeling. Then he was asked to come up on stage and tell what International Women's Day meant to him! He told me he said a few words but was caught completely off guard. Then the female staff came on stage and he went down the line and kissed every single one of them per instruction!

                                        All of his students wanted their picture taken with him!

There are several things I had on my "To Do" list that I want to accomplish before I go home. One of them was to go to the movies. So Sunday after our language class with Carie, the 3 of us took a taxi to a huge movie theater which was on the 7th floor of a very large mall. "This Means War" with Reese Witherspoon was playing in one of several stadium-seated theaters. We were able to get 3 tickets - 1 regular ticket for 100.000 dong ($5) and 2 senior tickets for 75.000 dong ($3.75) each! And the best thing was that it was a reserved seat!

Of course, what is a movie without popcorn? So Ron ordered the special which was 2 drinks and a popcorn and they asked him if he wanted the popcorn sweet or salty.

It's hard to read, but the sign on the left says Popcorn Salty and the sign on the right says Popcorn Sweet 

(I think).

Wednesday we leave for Hanoi where Ron is delivering a paper at the 4th Mid-Year Enrichment Conference for U.S. Scholars and Students in South East Asia. His speech is called "Teaching the War in Vietnam...In Vietnam." We're staying at the Hilton Hanoi Opera Hotel which is a 5 star hotel. The conference starts Wednesday and runs through Friday. Then we're going to take a few extra days and he is going to show me around Hanoi and we'll return on Monday.