Moon cakes - the gift that just keeps on giving

This weekend was the Mid Autumn Festival in Vietnam, aka the Moon Festival.  This festival coincides with other lunar harvest festivals, such as the Korean Thanksgiving (Chuseok).

At school, we had the dragon dance performance to celebrate this special time of year.  It is also a Vietnamese tradition to give moon cakes... after all, it is the Moon Festival!

What is a moon cake?

A moon cake is a round type of pastry - stuffed with a thick filling such as red bean paste or lotus seed paste.  Moon cakes come in all sorts of varieties.  They can be stuffed with salted duck eggs (the yolk represents the moon!), beans and other vegetables, nuts, fruit, and even thing such as shark fin.

What do moon cakes taste like?

It depends on the moon cake.  When I first heard of moon cakes, I thought they would be delicious, light, flaky pastries filled with something yummy like fruit or chocolate.  Unfortunately, I was extremely disappointed to be tasting beans and mystery meat (ham?  shark? who knows...) inside the first time I took a bite of one.  If you talk to Vietnamese people, many say they love moon cakes, and others hate them.  Last year I re-gifted my moon cakes.  I guess they're kind of like fruit cake... the gift that keeps on giving!  If you don't like it, pass it on to someone else...

This year I got some moon cakes from students, and I was surprised to open one of the boxes to find a TIRAMISU MOON CAKE!  I had to try it... and it was actually pretty good.  Inside it was chocolatey and there was definitely nothing weird like shark fin in there.

Tiramisu Moon Cake!

Love them or hate them, moon cakes are a strong tradition in Vietnamese culture.  Happy Tet Trung Thu!

September school happenings

This has been a busy month...

We had an open house, started after school clubs (I'm doing an art club with grade 1s), lots of meetings, and peace day.

Open house

My co-teacher and I on Peace Day

This week we were celebrating the Mid Autumn Festival, and we had a dragon dance performance and traditional moon cakes for snack at school. The dragons performed in the courtyard and then came into our classrooms to deliver the moon cakes.  I love when we get these interesting cultural experiences at school!

Dragon Dance

Dragons in the classroom!

A night at the opera

Today I received some free tickets to the opera house from a student, whose mother was performing as the opera singer in the show.  Having never been to the opera house before, I decided to check it out.  I had often passed by the opera house downtown.  It is so beautiful on the outside, with big white pillars and dramatic spotlights at night.  Inside, it is quaint enough that every seat in the house would offer a great view.  Normally, tickets would cost either $10 or $20, but luckily there was no charge for us. 

The evening's show had the orchestra performing, along with 3 talented women - the opera singer, a pianist, and a violinist.  It was nice to do something so "classy" for the evening.  John and I even got interviewed by some local news show about our thoughts on the performance!

After the show, we had dessert downtown with our friends who were also attending the show.  It was a great cultural evening that I'm glad we had the opportunity to experience.

Opera!

The Saigon Opera House by night!

Paying at the pumps... Vietnam style!

Most people in Vietnam drive a motorbike, John included.  While the traffic looks chaotic, as motorbikes are dodging other motorbikes, people, bicycles, chickens, puddles, and random vehicles, there is actually some order to the madness.  Luckily, the ride to school is one straight road!  No navigating roundabouts or busy downtown traffic.

Many teachers in Vietnam have opted to either rent or buy motorbikes to save on money.  Compared to taking a taxi everywhere, motorbikes are a cheaper option in the long run and give you more freedom.  Where people back home are looking to carpool or take public transit due to rising gas prices, no one in Vietnam is concerned with these issues.  Why?  Because it costs $5 to fill up your motorbike tank!  That usually lasts the whole week.

The gas station is on the way to school.  It's full service, no need to pump your own gas here.  Here's a photo of John at the gas station...

Back to the land of K-pop + bibimbap!

In October we have 1 week of holidays from school, and to fulfill our craving of kimchi, bibimbap, karaoke, soju, and K-pop music, we are going back to KOREA!!!

It's going to be awesome.  We're heading to Busan and Seoul.  There should be lots of visits with old friends and co-workers, and lots of funny "only in Korea" moments!!!

Here's a hugely popular K-pop video from the Korean rapping sensation, PSY... Oppa Gangnam Style!  :)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

Loco for Coco

Last week we ordered Korean food online from a restaurant in district 1.  We decided to throw in an order for coconuts (drinking coconut water here, straight from the coconut) is normal.  The delivery guy brought them, covered in plastic wrap... definitely fresh.  We had to hack a hole in the top to put in a straw.

I heard that coconut water is a new health fad in North America.  People pay lots of money to get the stuff, which is known as an all-natural sports drink.  It is high in potassium and antioxidants, and lots of runners drink it to stay energized.  I'm not sure what the price of it back home is, but here in Vietnam you can get your very own coconut for around 50 cents - 1 dollar!

Mui Ne & the Bad Blogger!

Ok, I haven't been posting on this blog as much as I'd like to.  I apologize to everyone at home who is reading this and waiting for updates!  I've been pretty busy with work and when I come home I just want to sleep!

On the first weekend of September it was a holiday, so there was a 3 day weekend.  A large group of teachers rented a bus and drove 6 hours to Mui Ne, the lovely beach destination on the South China Sea where we visited last year.

Mui Ne is famous for its huge sand dunes.  This year we rented a jeep ($6 per person) and the driver brought us to both dunes (the White Dunes and the Red Dunes).  Last year we got ATVs at the dunes, but this year we just decided to hang out and relax.  There was an intense frisbee game of "TIPS" going on, some long jump competitions, and some well-deserved relaxation.

At the White Dunes

This year we also rented bicycles (75 cents for 2 hours!) and went to the Fairy Stream which looks like something out "A Land Before Time."  The shallow stream runs along banks of bright orange sand/mud.  Some of the mud on the banks was so thick that our feet were getting stuck like quicksand!  At the end of the stream there is a small waterfall.  The place was really beautiful and great for photos.

Expecting a T-Rex sighting at any moment

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out at the pool, getting massages, eating shawarma, and celebrating a new school year with our fellow teachers.  Good times!!!