450 Year Celebration

This week is the celebration of Vientiane being the capital city of Laos for 450 years! There has been preparation and fixing ups going on in the city since we arrived. The celebration centers around That Luang, which is a big stupa in the middle of the city. That Luang has some important relic from some important Buddhist person in it.

Last week we were told all of the schools in the city would be closed for the week so everyone could properly celebrate. So we were thinking of maybe doing a little traveling over our break.... Then we heard that we will have school until Thursday because the policy is to have school. As of Saturday night, the Faculty of Letters does NOT have class all week, but my faculty, the Faculty of Education, does have class all week. So, now I'm planning on teaching next week, but we'll see how many of my students show up. I think (or maybe it's wishful thinking) that many of my students will come. I sure hope so! 

The big 450 Year Celebration is just a big festival with many booths and good food. It seems like a pretty big deal... but I don't really know what else all happens. Oh, there is a big ceremony on Friday which some of my students are volunteering for. Some will dance or translate or be security guards who pat people down before they are allowed to enter the stadium for the ceremony. 

Last night some visiting American students hosted a party for our students. We ate Lao food, practiced English and took pictures with the Americans. It was really nice not being the host so I could have more fun with my students! They're all just the best! 

One of my students asked me last week how she can improve her speaking. I asked her if she had any English speaking friends. She said no. I said she could come to my office after class and we can go through a book of 4000 Questions for Getting to Know Anyone to practice speaking English. On Tuesday and Friday I had 5 students who came after class to practice speaking English. We started with one question from the book, but we were soon talking about other random things. I feel like the topic of boyfriends and girlfriends comes up frequently... But maybe I can teach some of my boys that whistling at a pretty girl is not the best way to get her attention. They also enjoy hearing about cultural differences between Laos and America. They were pretty horrified when I told them that I hiked up my sinh to ride on the back of a motorbike instead of sitting side saddle like all other proper Lao women.
It's really fun to chat with my students more outside of class. I told them we could do this every Tuesday and Friday afternoon. So far they seem interested. Hopefully they'll keep wanting to come and practice English!