Tai

Tai is a friend of mine from the faculty of economics at AGU. He was one of the first people I met in the faculty who took me out to show me Long Xuyen. I admire his determination to be the best in all that he does. So last Monday I was surprised that Tai looked sad when he saw me. I asked him what was wrong and he said that this might be the last time he sees me. I was taken aback a little as there was still quite a bit of time left I thought. He told me that he was going to study English tomorrow in HCMC for 6 weeks. He asked if I was free that night to meet him. At the time I was busy and didn’t really think it through so well and said call me later.

Well later came and I called him to say lets go out to a new restaurant, well new for Tai anyway. So we headed to Truyen’s after a few false starts and proceeded to organise a party there. We ordered some food and beer and discussed future plans and dreams, and past stories. Later, Thinh a policeman in Long Xuyen arrived, to join the party. Both Thinh and Tai went to school together and have been friends since the beginning of time. When they get together you can see a real connection between them.

Afterwards Eric arrived, followed by Thinh’s younger brother. From here the discussion started to veer towards how to improve language and we told Tai his language should be good enough. Yet he feels more practice is needed so we kept talking with him. As this was the first of my going away parties I was starting to feel a little nostalgic. Also the restaurant seemed unusually empty for once, although this didn’t stop Eric from making new friends. As the time to go arrived I told Tai and Thinh that they would see me one more time. Thinh at the farewell in Long Xuyen and Tai to the farewell in HCMC if possible.