Sleep forever

I was reviewing a little vocabulary the other day with a mid-level class and I asked them: "What is death?" It was in one of our stories, so don't think I'm morbid or weird. I'm both, but you don't have to think it. I was wondering how I would answer when one of the students blurted out: "It's when you sleep forever." That's one of the reasons why I love teaching. What a great answer. Now, our class joke is: "I'm going home and going to sleep .... forever."
My Bien Hoa neighbors are almost too nice, if that's possible. I said almost because I always accept what they offer, from bananas and local exotic fruits,  to wedding anniversary soup and French bread and iced coffee. Delivery is free. I've never had neighbors this nice anywhere in the world. The traffic comes by and the riders still stare and say silly "Hello's" and "How are you's?" to me, and now the neighbors smile, as if they understand the perils of being a white monkey. The massage girl loves the white monkey moniker because of my body hair, but I don't like when she tries to pluck my body hair out. It's not nice to tease the white monkey. The Vietnamese are just about hairless, and a good wind could blow the whiskers off the guys' faces.
We had our Go Green competition at our school, with the finals at the VMG Cambridge ceremony. Honestly, I'm glad it's over. It became something of an obsession, with winning being very, very, very, very important. Understand ? (hieu?). My F3A2 class -- kids from 10 -12 years old -- came in second. I think we were the youngest group. I really don't care how we finished because these students understand Ladies First and Clean Up Your Mess. We had pizza to celebrate the fact they learned the important lessons. Great kids, one and all. And they get it.
After more than a year here, I've learned the flow and some important lessons. I'm too big to park my motorbike where everyone else does, because I can never get it out without knocking over other bikes. Kind of like Pee Wee Herman in that one funny movie he made. Don't carry much money. People love to look in your wallet, so I fill my wallet with rubber bands. Don't stare back at the gawkers. It only encourages a longer stare. The head-down nod seems to work best.  Don't tip like you are in the USA. People, especially the young girls, will think you have money, and they'll bother you and ask for your phone number.  They don't actually like the white monkey, but they love the white money. Of course, this is not everyone. But it exists and it's reality. The white monkey doesn't lie, or tip like he used to. The kids here can fix anything. When something breaks in class, I ask the students to deal with it because I'll just screw it up. Don't drink the tap water. Best of all, the folks here don't hold a grudge -- at least 99 percent don't. You can have "a moment" with someone in a store or at work, and the next time you see them it's like it never happened. I love that.