Vegemite and Rice Paper Rolls: End of the school Year

The end of the school year is always frantic, there is so much to do and those last few days seem to just fly by. For me there is Inventory, gathering resources back from teacher and students often to the tune of "I don't think I ever borrowed that" only to find it returned a few days later. Tempers get a little frayed even more so in the International schools scene where many of the teachers are not only packing up classes but packing up lives. Which also means so many farewells! honestly since I have lived offshore I have said just way too many goodbyes.

Back to the last days of the school year and Graduations. At our school our graduations and award ceremonies are done at the Opera House a beautiful old building in the middle of district 1.
It looks bigger then it is - so to fit us all in we split the ceremonies into 3; the elementary, the middle and the high schools - which is great but having children in the middle and the high means I have to attend all 3 ceremonies.
So the first graduation was the elementary graduation which is a very informal occasion. The Vietnamese do not really "get" quietly watching - all the kids and the Vietnamese staff talk continuously and not in a hush whisper but loudly. Mind you the nannies and the Teaching Assistants are brilliant they pretty much run the whole graduation the Western staff just go which in itself is a little weird but much less stressful for us. The ceremony this year lasted about 2 hours but by the end of the ceremony when the Grade 5's are receiving the graduation certificates there is hardly anyone left behind - the families just collect their children and leave - even stopping to take photos of their children in front of the stage whilst awards are being given - all very strange but that's Vietnam for you.

Josh's graduation was the next day which meant i went to work for a few hours then left and headed to the Opera House because though not graduating this year he did win an award. Their Graduation was more formal then the elementary - at one stage though a name was announced of a student who was not there at which point the entire student body of the audience put both their hands up and shock them - so typically Vietnamese, but it means "I don't know", from our spot on the first floor balcony it looked terribly funny all these kids with their hands in their air. For Josh's award I will let Zander's photos tell the story.......