A Long, Ming Mang Kind of Day

This morning the whole group visited Minh Mang’s tomb. This is not just a grave but a whole complex with a kind of summer retreat for the king from the heat of Hue and the Palace in the summer. He definitely should have retreated further as it was steamy hot when we went, but from the height of the elevated reception hall and plaza, a steady wind blew that cooled everyone off. I introduced the students to Minh Mang’s medicinal drink and we took one main group photo for the course before everyone started wilting in the heat. Especially fresh all morning was Scuppy. She posed and posed for the students and here is pictured striking her supercutie pose.

Following the morning tour, I embarked on a seven-hour run of setting up student meetings. I gave the first exam of the course at the hotel--not bad performance wise. From then I spent the day pretty much nonstop coordinating student meetings with local people on their respective topics. Genie Yoo is studying traditional music and is arranging lessons with a dan bau teacher. He came with his wife who was probably a little bit concerned about her husband going off to teach a young foreign girl dan bau. The wife kindly offered the services of her little brother to help translate and no doubt stay on top of the situation. The brother happens to be single, so nothing lost there. After the language class let out, I motored Collin Radokovik over to a former Dean of Hue Teaching College from before 1975. He told us about his time from 64-69 in Syracuse and then about this experimental highschool Americans set up in Hue before 1975. Unfortunately, much of the equipment at the college and highschool was looted during the Tet Offensive in 68. As I dropped off Collin, another student, Giosep Vo, approached me about his interest in the Catholic Church in Hue. So we headed out in the direction of this huge church on the top of a hillside in Hue and after some winding around and asking to various priests, we finally made our way to the clergy headquarters in the city. Not too long after that, I dropped Giosep off at the hotel and was requested by another student to attend to her ailment. Dr. Dang, an internal medicine doc at Hue Medical College stopped by and she has a little medicine for her tummyache.