The Grand Tour

School's out

[This is the third of three new log entries, which were actually
written over the past two weeks. You might want to read them in
order.]

The class is over! The countdown started last Monday, when I gave my
last lecture. On Wednesday, the students gave their presentations,
which were of spectacular quality (partly because the first class they
took in this program covered technical communication skills). On
Thursday, they took Christine, her mom, her aunt, another local
relative, and me to dinner (that was the evening before the final). We
had a wonderful time, although dinner included a dog-like forest
creature... which the servers brought to us alive before dinner
(trapped in a canvas bag) to make sure it was fresh; then they took it
back to the kitchen where they chopped it up and served it to
us. Unlike the dog I ate last week, its meat was fairly chewey. (Yes,
I really ate dog as I said on my April 1 entry; there was no April
fool joke in that entry). But, more importantly, the whole experience
of seeing this lovely wild creature trapped in a bag and then served
on a plate in small cubes was, well, hard to take. One step closer to
turning vegetarian, I guess.

That dish aside, the food was fantastic, and since we were the only
group in that room, we could be loud and have fun. So we did, and I
thoroughly enjoyed the company of all my students. And got even more
impressed with them as I got more glimpses into their backgrounds, and
their out-of-classroom life. When the meal was over, one student had
to go back to his wife and child (yup, some were relatively old and
yet still motivated to return to school), and another had to take his
girlfriend back to her home because curfew was at 10pm (she is a
junior in college, and, in these parts, she is too young to be out
that late with a man). The rest of us went bowling, which again was
thoroughly entertaining (Christine and I scored at the very bottom of
the group). Of course, all transportation for all people involved was
on the students' motorbikes, which in itself was a fun ride.

Anyway, the point is that my students goofed off the night before the
final, and so did I. And I'm glad we did since I wouldn't have a
chance to just hang out with them before leaving Hanoi. So they
deserved some extra time for their last assignment (originally due
right before the final), which I had to grade after returning from
Sapa (I'll get to this later). Moreover, the final itself proved to be
much harder then I thought; of course I am curving all assignments and
exams, but still I was hoping the students would finish the class with
a sense of triumph by nailing every problem on the final exam. That
impression aside, the fact is that, after curving, all students did
very well on the exam, and demonstrated an impressive understanding of
the course material. It was so gratifying for me to get a sense that
they really learned something in the end of this short month! The
course evaluations also showed that they felt the same way, which was
extremely motivating for me to return to Hanoi next year.

Back to the final... The students were also a bit surprised that I ran
the final like Stanford classes, i.e. I gave them the exam and went
away: if they had questions, they had to come to my office and ask
me. This also enabled me to have a last-minute meeting with Tra, the
relative by marriage who is trying to come to the US for college. She
is an impressive young lady, and I sure hope she'll realize her dream
as I did mine 15 years ago (my God, it's been that long...). I also
had a chance to go get drinks for my students to celebrate the end of
the final. But because all students used all four hours of the exam,
we finished the exam at 8:30p and I had to be at my mother-in-law's
hotel at 9p (to take off for Sapa). Thankfully, a kind student took me
on his motorbike and we zoomed straight to... the cafe where I had
bought the drinks, in order to return the empty coke bottles (which
are reused by the Coca Cola company, which is why coke is half-price
when purchased in a bottle than in a can... a very good conservation
practice which, if Greece is an example, it will unfortunately go away
in due time as aluminium gets cheaper). And then he took me to the
hotel, where I arrived just in time.

Then we went to Sapa (see the previous log entry), and on Monday we
returned to Hanoi around 5a. After a short sleep, I started grading
the last assignment, and then assigned final course grades, pressed a
CD for Lien (the program administrator) with the course materials, and
so on. I was done at 6a on Tuesday, and then woke up at 8a to have a
wrap-up meeting with Lien. At 10a, I was picked up by the group to
start our trip to Saigon. Naturally, I slept most of the way to our
first night's pit stop. To be precise, the tour had started on Monday
with a day trip to the Perfume pagoda, which consists of a short boat
trip on the Perfume river from Hanoi to a pagoda; but I had to miss it
because of grading. We'll be back to Hanoi next year, though, so we'll
go then.

The class is over, and it was a wonderful experience. I like being a
software developer. I like teaching too. I also think I'd enjoy vet
school. Damn, too many things to do, too short a lifespan.

Posted by Toli at April 20, 2004 12:22 AM