Things I never thought I'd see written on a blackboard

Who knew that today's lesson would consist entirely of the characters, plot, themes, and phrases from The Lion King?

This afternoon got off to a rocky start when I showed up for my 1 PM class to find out that, no, silly me!, my class actually meets at 3:20 from now on! A little head's-up would have been nice, and after some of the earlier frustrating events from this week, I almost lost my cool completely. Luckily, I didn't actually freak out on the English department and scorn its lack of organization, communication, and consistency like I wanted to, but... I wanted to. 

Luckily, the class in question was K2B, so my grumpy mood could not last for too long once I arrived in class. They were thrilled at the idea of getting to watch a movie (especially since my time slot has now been bumped from the 1-3:20 full-and-contented-after-lunch time slot to the 3:25-6 too-tired-to-think-and-getting-cranky-for-dinner time slot), and they chose The Lion King. 

Committed to including some form of an educational element in class, despite the laid-back nature of getting to watch a movie, we spent one period after the movie discussing the themes and lessons from the movie. I was shocked that a) they were able to understand the entire plot and recite back the entire movie to me and that b) they were able to analyze it critically.

They pointed out some pretty complex themes of patriotism (when Simba finds out from Nala that the animals of Pride Rock have no food or water, he comes back to help his homeland), companionship (Simba would have died if Timon and Pumbaa had not found him and rescued him), respecting one's ancestors, not worrying too much about things in the past that we cannot change, the circle of life, etc. etc. etc. I couldn't believe how seriously they had taken the movie and how much they had learned from it!

The best part of the whole class was hearing them walk out the door saying "Hakuna Matata" to one another! It was so cute to see them repeating it that I didn't have the heart to tell them that Hakuna Matata is not actually an English phrase.

This weekend is going to be a busy one. I'm attending a Fulbright ETA conference held at Kelly's university in Dong Thap (deep in the Mekong Delta). Among the things I'm looking forward to: trying barbecued field rat, which is apparently the culinary specialty of Kelly's town (if you're lucky, I may even post pictures! Apparently they serve it so you can still see its intact body- eek!), and eating a burger and fries at the newly-opened Burger King at the Saigon Airport!