Today Dad took me to the university that he works at. I sat in the corner reading while he taught the students. He told stories about me (how I'm good at athletics and stuff) and how everyone wants to take a selfie with me. Not long ago, we went to the beach with friends, and some teenage girls crept up behind me armed with their phones, eager to sneak a selfie. I was like "go away!" but they literally chased me around the beach trying to take a selfie with me.
At the end of the class, just as I feared, Dad's students (the giggling teenage girls) wanted to take a selfie. Luckily Dad was on my side said "NO SELFIES. Daniel, make a run for the door!" He was kidding, but for me it was pretty serious. And we were headed to the next class. Fortunately this class did not hover over me with selfie sticks.
I have been getting really used to riding on a motorcycle. In fact, I love being on a motorbike now. At first I was scared to death that I would flip off into a busy intersection. Now we can fit THREE people on Dad's scooter. Isn't that crazy!? (In Vietnam, not at all.)
Lately when it's only me, Dad, and Michael, we have worked out a way to fit on the motorbike. When it's a long ride, that's a little uncomfortable. But today, at the university, Dad had to take me and a Vietnamese student to a copy shop. Even though the student was bigger than Michael, it was actually much easier to fit because he knew how to fit in the least space possible on a motorbike. Three guys on a scooter. One time I saw a family of five on a scooter--our family could definitely not do that.
But the three guys on a scooter got me thinking about the Studio C video:
And Dad's side of the Story:
Friday mornings Janet goes to a women's Bible study with other expats, and usually we leave all three kids home alone during that time, since my teaching schedule has me at the university each morning at 7am. However, in the last days/weeks, it's been a little rocky sometimes for the kids to be home and relating to each other without parental intervention. Last night was another rather emotional episode, and we determined that it wouldn't do to leave them home together today. For Far Side fans, this is the cartoon that comes to mind:
It's not a completely grim situation among the three Chase kids--sometimes days go by without emotions becoming overwrought, but it's something to pray about if you're a praying person. Thanks for that.
In any case, we sent Anna with Janet to hang out where the women were gathering, and she helped with childcare for that. Michael stayed home and worked on math and his photography course. And Daniel came with me to two sections of English Pronunciation class.
The students I teach are all freshmen, so you can imagine 18-year-old college girls that have come to the big city from the countryside where they never had seen foreigners in real life. And today they had not just their tall American Teacher, but also his adorable 11 year old son. To the Vietnamese, Daniel is breathtakingly cute. If he wanted it, he could be in a boy-band in Vietnam and a million girls would put his picture on their schoolbooks. He doesn't want it.
Daniel says that he read, but I saw him sneaking games on the tablet from time to time. We had the Android tablet repaired this week. The new screen cost what it cost, but the labor was $5. Five dollars! My computer experienced water trauma, so I'm ordering a replacement motherboard from the US. When it comes, the shop is going to charge me $10 in labor to swap boards. I'm impressed. Trying to think of what else I can get repaired around here! Today the local bicycle repair guy aired up two tires, oiled my chain, and re-attached a the pedals to the frame, and he wanted $.50 for the services. I paid him $1 and said to keep the change. :)
So back to the freshmen. I could see that they were all itching to do selfies with the young master Chase, so I told them about the girls on the beach, and how it really wasn't cool to take selfies with a kid who doesn't want the attention. But I wasn't clear enough in my meaning, because at the end of class they were rather desperately inviting him to come over for a selfie Pleeeeease. I took a mock-protective stance and told Daniel to make a dash for it while I covered him. I'm sure they'll eventually get a selfie with him, but hopefully we'll work out a photo-shoot where they can get a selfie with the whole Chase family. Or, as we've sometimes joked, we may get life-sized cardboard Chases made so that people can get selfies with us on a broader scale.
When we loaded onto my motorbike with Daniel, Minh, and myself to go make copies of the textbook, I did find myself humming the song in the "Two Guys on a Scooter" video Daniel mentioned above. I've been writing a post about motorcycling in Vietnam. I'm calling it "I use them as human shields." Every day I learn something new about how to navigate Viet traffic. More to come on that.
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