I suddenly realised I had a small-time crush on one of my younger students when I was in Vietnam.
We had coffee at this upscale, trendy cafe in the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh. Wasn’t able to resist, why, it’s part of that teacher-student on-the-side enrichment activities! She taught me most of the words in my limited Vietnamese vocabulary that I never learned to master during my entire stay. I taught her how to say “cappucino” with perfection, among many things. Fair trade.
And then it dawned on me, just about now, as I type this sentence: I forgot what her name is. Her English name, for crying out loud. Vietnamese names weren’t that easy to remember, as they all seemed like hieroglyphics to me that time. Plus her name doesn’t have a Nguyen in it. Miraculously. So to forget her English name - that’s beyond fuckery. And I liked this kid. My mind just turned into plain mush. There’s this symphony of laughter, coupled with mockery, that is doing a slight crescendo inside my head now.
But I digress. I always gave her high marks. She was really smart, so I guess that’s alright.
HAHA goddamn it where were my morals.
Probably went down the drain with all that irresistible dirty pho and dirty sugarcane sinh to that I flushed ever so recklessly inside my body. But it’s all good.
