A Student Stopped by

A 2nd year student (named T.A.) came by our dorms yesterday unannounced and our teammates invited him to stay for dinner. I had a long conversation with him about Vietnam's economy and its future. I remember T.A. was the student who asked me a very different question when I was the guest speaker for my teammate's Speaking class two weeks ago. While all the other students were asking me personal questions, T.A. stood up and asked me, "What do you think about the current economy in America?" Yesterday was no different, he was very interested in talking about economics, marketing, Vietnam's economy, and what he would like to do after he graduates.
T. A. 's family lives in a small town 70km from here. His father had 3 years of school, and I don't think his mother had any schooling. He has two older sisters, already married and with children. They did not make it to college. He is the only one in the family who made it into a university, so his parents are REAL proud of him, talking about him all the time with their neighbors. But he said he is the only hope for his family, so he bears the weight of this responsibility on his shoulders. He would like to find a job where he can be his own boss because, like most other young people like him, bosses here tend to be very controlling. He wants to be independent and not having to work under a strict boss. I have heard this from a few students already and am finding it interesting.
We also talked about where Vietnam is headed economically, and he was quite positive about its future. Overall, it was an interesting conversation and I got to learn a few things about him. His English was still a little limited, so we couldn't get very deep into the topic. But at least he got to have some practice, and hopefully that was good for him
For dinner, among other things, we had brown rice and red bell pepper, both of which he tasted for the very first time and was not too crazy about. There was eggplants, which I was not so crazy about. We also had pork, which was given to us by a family we had visited last week from their special own homegrown stock in their backyard. For dessert, we had some pomelo, American melon (that's what they called the fruit, but I told them I have never seen it in America before), and brownies which my teammates baked using rice flour (Manny is allergic to wheat). Wonder how T.A. felt about the whole experience, having dinner with foreign teachers in their home and was treated with respect and hospitality.