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I Will Miss

Published by Carolyn Lee, Stanford Women's Softball
Student drawing a heart on a chalk board

Throughout my trip, I have grown to love many things that I sadly do not have in America:

I will miss Vietnamese iced milk coffee (ca phe sua da) and special Vietnamese orange juice (cam da).

Vietnamese Iced Coffee
Ca phe sua da

I will miss walking up to the school everyday and being greeted by cheering young faces, smiling as they wave and say “hello” or “xin chow.”

I will miss getting to work along side such welcoming and helpful Vietnamese coaches.

ACE Student-Athletes and Students at a Lesson Planning Session
One of our lesson planning sessions

I will miss the 7-year-old twins who helped me coach baseball by yelling, “You’re outta there!”, “Safe!”, and “Foul ball!”.

ACE Student-Athlete Teaching Students How to Be Umpires
My umpires in training: Kien and Thuc. Teaching them a couple of English phrases sure helped out once we started to play real games. Not to mention that they are pretty good hitters as well.

I will miss Ngo, Thanh, Quang, Tuyen, and all of the students I have had the pleasure of both teaching and learning from.

Green Team Preparing for Competition Day
Quang and I during our week 2 competition day. In case you were wondering, he “killed” it in volleyball that day.

All that being said, I am very excited for the things that I will bring home with me:

I will bring home with me Vietnamese coffee beans so that I can share my newfound love for ca phe sua da with those at home.

I will bring home with me the friendships I have created and keep up with them via Facebook and email.

Student Writing on Chalkboard
We were talking about independence days and had the flags drawn on the board. While we were still organizing a couple things in the classroom, one of the students decided he wanted to make a small addition to the board.

I will bring home with me the things I have learned about being a good host, especially to somebody who is in a completely new environment.

Green Team ACE Coaches with Vietnamese Coaches and Hosts
The green team coaches including a couple of our wonderful Vietnamese coaches and hosts, Huy and Uyen.

And while I cannot bring home all of my lovely students, they will come home with me through my memories and the stories that I cannot wait to share with everybody.

Green Team Group Picture
The 8th grade green team, my color team, on the last competition day. Green team, dream team!

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