Happy International Women's Day!
03/08/2009
Happy International Women's Day! I wish all my female friends and relatives in the states could enjoy this holiday as much as I am. It is a bit like Mother's Day, but honors all women. Women faculty tell me that they don't have to cook or do housework today, they are given flowers, and often they do something fun with other women. That is certainly my experience.
Occasionally a few things are lost in translation. This morning I thought I was going to judge a cooking contest, so I only ate a little yogurt for breakfast. When I arrived at the classroom where the event was being held, it was abuzz with activity. Instead of judging a cooking contest, I learned that English majors in Class 48-Translation, Class 48-Tourism, Class 49-Translation, Class 50-Translation, and Class 50-Tourism were competing in 3 events: flower arranging, gift wrapping, and cooking. I had great fun and many laughs as I roamed from location to location observing students in action.
Students in the gift-wrapping competition were to spend no more than 20,000 dong for materials and some proudly told of how they salvaged things from the trash in order to stay within budget. The judging rubric was in Vietnamese, so it's hard to say if I evaluated them correctly, but I think we evaluated them on beauty of the package, oral explanation of the design, staying within budget, and shape of the package. The students pictured here won second place with their gift box, which was meant to be given to a little sister on International Women's Day. During the auction following the competition, Ms. Hong bought it for me so I would have a souvenir of the day.
I was quite impressed with the floral arrangements, especially with explanations of what each flower's position and color symbolized. As you might expect, many of them had to do with mothers and children. One of the judges bought the third-place floral prize and gave it to me (pictured at the top of this page, it is on the right). The S-shape made from red flowers symbolizes the mother country, Vietnam, which is a developing nation. The yellow flowers represent youth who are looking upward to the future. I wish I could have understood the entire explanation, but what I did hear was very thoughtful.
The most amusing activity was the cooking contest because the men had to cook while the women watched. The guys pictured here proceeded with great confidence, but in some other groups men were getting too many directions from the bystanders. Each group arranged their food artfully on a plate and put it on display in the classroom. (This reminded me a bit of 4-H). By this time in the morning I was feeling quite hungry, but my stomach wasn't quite up to the task of evaluating pork balls, stir-fried beef, and fish in a spicey sauce, which is why the stir-fried pineapple and rice, along with the tofu dish, probably tasted the best to me. Fortunately, there were other judges to counter-balance my opinion. During the auction I bought the tofu dish, and then gave it to a couple of hungry-looking young men.
While the faculty deliberated, students entertained one another by singing songs in both English and Vietnamese. Students shrieked when the prizes were announced and it was quite exciting to see their class spirit. What a fun event, and a fun day. Of course, there is more to come. Later this afternoon I'm going on a boat trip with the women faculty, and tonight there's dinner with the rector. International Women's Day is truly a festive occasion!
