A sea of literal red

So I'm actually a teacher out here. Thought I should tell you as a lot of you may have forgotten, due to the fact it seems like all I do is go out and get myself into trouble. But I am a moulder of young vietnamese minds, that is right! So buckle your seatbelts, grab your cuppa and come along on this story with me (that does end in a night out- I do like to be consistent). Last Tuesday started off as any normal Tuesday, a chill morning with my weekday class scheduled for later in the evening, followed by a trip to the ever faithful Lush. Imagine my surprise when I arrive in class to encounter a see of red and a classroom full of jacked up 7 year olds. Through their excitement, and broken English they manage to tell me that it is the football final tonight. Vietnam vs Indonesia. The final game in the SEA championships. Now bear in mind that this is the under22's. Its not their national team, it's not like the all blacks playing, not even markos (fins up) it would sort of be comparable to first XV. Being the opportunist that I am I decide to use this to my advantage. The game started at 7.00pm and my class finished at 7.30pm, brilliant. Less planning and I had emotional blackmail on my side. I wrote the word Football on the board and everytime they misbehaved, wernt listening or just annoyed me, I took away a letter. No letters, no football. Simple. Boy did they understand. Instantly they were different kids. They sat up straight, listened like their life depended on it and were fighting over who could help me. Class was going flawlessly and I was wrapped, half way through a game Án came up to me with his head straight down.. "Teacher, I so sorry, I not Nie (vietnamese kids have trouble saying nice), goodbye L". My heartbroke. Here was a 6 year old, who knew I hadn't seen him misbehave, who was the main instigator in wanting to watch the football but still came and told me that he was wrong. I was unbelievably proud of my lil nugget! (More on Án later). But by 7.10pm they still has Footba so a deal is a deal (and I had run out of activities) so on came the match. Within the 10 seconds it took me to find the link and press play, every single boy had managed to tie their Vietnam headband and sit on the floor ready! It was such a wholesome sight. For the final 20 minutes of the game the children were unbelievably excited. I have never been a football fan, I dont really get it, rugby has big hits and incredible plays, but football? To me, nothing. But purely for the kids sake, I was footballs biggest fan! It comes to the end of class and we are only 30 minutes into the game, the kids all rush out to meet their parents so they can speed off into the night in order to catch the last 10 minutes at home. After packing up the classroom and getting to the garage I was ready to do the exact same. As I have recently moved my drive home is a little longer than normal, little did I know it was the perfect amount of time. Just enough time to get home before the streets descended into utter chaos. I'm getting ahead of myself, Vietnam won. Well technically they drew, but because they had bet Indonesia previously in the competition they claimed the title. A gold medal in the South East Asia games (I'm still not 100% on the name). Vietnam knows how to celebrate, within 20minutes of the final whistle the streets were packed! Like packed PACKED. I did share a video on my facebook for anyone who needs visual confirmation, but all you could see was red. Every man, woman, child and dog were out, waving flags, blowing horns and sinking cans. It was an incredible sight.

Landmark 81, the tallest tower in south east Asia changed its lights so the top half of the building displayed the vietnamese flags. People had huge flat deck trucks, the ones used to transport diggers and such, filled with their mates, shouting at passers by "vietnam vô địch" (vietnam champions) People literally left their houses to stand on the side of the road, drinking, waving flags and just cutting laps around the city. The noise was insane, no matter where you were you could hear it, people were happy, babies were out, grannies were sitting in the gutter throwing back tins and just living life. I had to be apart of it, getting a grab into town was nearly a disaster, thankfully I arrived just before it turned to custard but my pal Ellie was not so lucky. The closest she could get was a 15 minute walk away to our destination as the roads became completly gridlocked. Being in the heart of it I was grinning like a Cheshire cat, I couldnt help it. The saying if you cant beat em join em came fully into our mind and we brought the headbands too, probably one of my favourite purchases here to date. Ending the night at the only place that seemed right, 185. It was there that I was reunited with my beautiful Queen (from my previous story). I brought a flag off her and we chatted for a good half an hour.

Experiencing this was yet another truly memorable experience that words (not even mine) do justice. And yet another example of why I have truely fallen head over heels for this beautiful damn country! Till next time'