Without further ado...

The much-anticipated English Department Eloquence Competition is behind us, and if I do say so myself, it was such a success. I was so proud of being part of the English Department, and I felt, most of all, so proud of all of my students who, despite their grammatical/pronunciation errors, still had the talent/confidence to stand up in front of their teachers and peers and give a speech in a foreign language. That takes major balls, and they deserve serious credit.

As I should have expected based on my past experiences with Vietnamese ceremonies and events, this one was no different and was held with the usual (and, in my opinion, over-the-top) amount of pomp and circumstance.

I will let the pictures speak for themselves....

A formal sign to commemorate the occasion. With the huge sign-making-for-one-time-events business in Vietnam, I always wonder what happens to the sign after the event. Are there closets all over Vietnam filled with signs from various past ceremonies? Very curious...

That sign depicts my serious and professional responsibility as judge, and this is my score sheet. Very official!

Here I am with Chi Hang and Ms. Diep-Anh, the other two competition judges.

This was when Diep-Anh suggested that Chi Hang and I smile while she frowned. I was so taken aback by the ridiculous suggestion that I laughed instead of complying with her artistic direction.

For those of you who wanted a glimpse of my new hair-cut, and also all my students in their gorgeous ao dai dresses.

First we had a musical performance by one of my first-year students from K4A English.

Vietnamese ceremonies are never complete without elaborate flower arrangements presented to anyone who has even the slightest role in the ceremony... in this case, every single performer, contestant, judge, and teacher.

Then some girls from my K3A English class did a dance...

Followed by some singing....

And another dance... 

Even Ms. Diep-Anh sang a song while looking up the lyrics on her cell phone!

And then my student, Sang, sang a song. [That is a good tongue twister to bring into class tomorrow, in fact...]

Then the entire English Department was called on stage.

And we were presented with flowers.

Oh right, but lest you forget that the main reason we were there was for the English Eloquence Contest! Here is Dung, our first contestant, and one of my students from my fourth-year K1A English class.

Contestant 2.

Contestant 3 (and our winner) was Hong, also from my K1A English class.

Contestant 4, and the biggest surprise to me, was Na, from my second-year K3A English class, whose speech and ability blew me away after hardly ever hearing her speak in class.

Contestant 5 is Sang, from my K2A English class of third-year students.

I messed that up. This is Tam, and she was actually Contestant 7, and she is also from my K1A English class. One of my non-students got skipped because I probably forgot to take a picture. Oops!

All of the contestants, ready to find out the results. It seemed like the Ms. America Contest when they all walked up onto the stage and waited together. So intense!

My hero, Mr. Duc, with all of the contestants, and an unidentified man who also presented the prizes.

 Oh, and lest you think that I am not putting my brand-new camera to good use, I also took a video recording of Thuong, one of my students from K2B (my favorite class of creative, hard-working, intelligent, witty, zany, and polite girls), singing a song.

Does she look familiar? It's because this is the very same Thuong of "My Heart Will Go On" fame from this afternoon.

My apologies for the shaky video editing- I promise my skills will improve.

 It's been a long day, and the competition dragged on for several hours, and the concentrated scent of so many flowers in the small auditorium started to give me quite a headache. I'm ready for bed and ready to have the stressful planning/deliberating of this competition behind us!