V Is For Vietnam

There is this lecturer who once tutored a subject I took. Surely he didn't remember me from then, but last year he was an evaluator for a friend's QE presentation, which I attended for moral support. Among the few people in the room I thought he might remember my face, so when I passed by him in the canteen some days ago, I half-smiled at him just in case. Surely enough, he loooked surprised at the greeting.

Then this afternoon we bumped into each other in the elevator. I think he remembered our previous encounter, because this time he was the one who smiled first. He even started a conversation, asking, "You're not going back to Vietnam for holiday?"

My immediate reaction when surprised by the question is to say "Sorry?" -- so he repeated, "You're not going back home for the holiday?"

I answered "No" and was briefly pondering whether to correct him about the Vietnam part, since (1) it would be awkward (with the sorries and stuff) (2) the rephrased question didn't mention it anymore (in retrospect, maybe he'd caught on?) and (3) it doesn't seem so important, hor?

Then he moved on to the next question and I went along with it -- so as of now, my nationality stands uncorrected to him. =D Well, maybe we'll fix that in the next meeting, if any.

Yeaaah, you should know the sad level of my social grace by now.