Pretty much looks like the original Teen Wolf, if you ask me.
We went to visit the monkeys first. There are five main primate species in Vietnam, and three that are kept at the center. The three at the center are the loris, gibbon and macaque. The lorises are nocturnal, so we didn't get to see them, but if you have never seen the video of Slow Loris, you should click here. Needless to say, I was really hoping that we would play with a loris, but the other monkeys were cool, too. One of them really, really looked like an Ewok
Then we hopped one section over and visited the carnivore and pangolin section. In case you don't know what a pangolin is (because I didn't before Saturday) here is a picture of one that I found on the internet:
It's my new favorite animal. I would want to play with one, but they are super endangered because it's believed that their scales have all these curative powers. They are big game in the international, illegal animal trade. They are pretty much the cutest things in the world.
We got lunch at a restaurant in the national park and then drove to somewhere else. It's hard for me to remember the names of all these places. We got on boats and were paddled all around these cliffs that supposedly had monkeys on them, but I didn't see one most likely because it was cold outside. I liked to call the cliffs we were paddling around THE CLIFFS OF INSANITY, but that's just me.
It was a lovely day to be out in the world.
Today, we had our last English class with the kids. We sang songs, played hangman, and had a party with hot dogs and salad to finish it out. We gave each of the kids a book (in English) to peruse and swap whenever they wanted. They gave us pictures that they had drawn and Christmas cards to send us on our way. The kids sang a few songs for us in Vietnamese and then performed some of the songs we had taught them over the past few months. We were doing great until the good-byes came around. One of the little boys said to me in passing, "I'm really going to miss you." I assured him that I would miss him as well. He gave a few hugs, but then started pacing in a more empty area of the room. He eventually walked outside, and I knew it was game over. I've done enough camper good-byes to know that this was about to go down. We went out and comforted him, but he was almost inconsolable. I was very proud of us for not breaking down right there on the spot, though I know there were those among us (Maeve McGarry) who were really struggling. It was a sad time, but I have loved working with them so much. I wouldn't have traded our time together for anything.
I now need to buckle down and finish my final paper. It's a big kahuna, but I can do it. It would be so much easier if 1) all my adult friends hadn't decided to have babies and put copious pictures of them up on facebook for me to look at and 2) A Knight's Tale wasn't on TV. The struggles of my life are real.
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