February 6, 2012
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Vietnam Part 6: Getting Schooled.
The one nice daily thing about Vietnam is that I could get cafe sua da every morning. And I pretty much did in Hanoi. I wish they had this in the loop in Houston- at least where it doesn’t cost a ridiculous $4 for just coffee and condensed milk.
An omelet with cheese is kind of weird. They just put a slice of cheese on top and I guess hope it melts?
Like I said, the pho is decent, but the small chunks of beef made me sad.
Even worse, the bacon out here is limp and more like ham.
That morning, we made the trip out to Quoc Tu Giam, the first national university in Vietnam. In the old days, not many people went to college, much less graduate schools- learning at that level was a luxury. At Quoc Tu Giam, students had a minor test each month and four major tests each year. If they did well enough, they were approved by the Ministry of Rites to sit for the National exam. Once they passed the National exam, they could then sit for the Royal exam held at the court. At this exam, the King himself posed the questions, responded to the candidates’ answers, and then ranked those who passed the Royal exam into different grades. These PhD students were given one topic on the exam by the King prior to receiving their PhD, and to be Valedictorian meant that you were the best in the nation. That’d be amazing if there were a presidential exam in the States, but I would assume in this day and age, any question posed by any president would be argued against heavily online.
It rained most of the time we were in Vietnam, and there were always people selling rain ponchos and umbrellas in the streets. I opted for the rather unattractive- but more camera friendly- rain poncho in lieu of an umbrella.
The valedictorian’s gown.
On the outside of the university was a saying which my dad explained that every student had to learn upon entering school, and it was roughly translated into this: “Learn courtesy and to respect each other first, then can you learn everything else.” In the old days, when you first began school, you learned how to be polite and to respect others before you began learning literature. My parents said they stopped teaching like that after the war, which is sad to me.
