Sleeping wasn't too tough after so many fricken hours of flying... We woke up around 6:30 though.
We began the day having breakfast down in the hotel lobby. I would compare it to the breakfast spread from Cuba. There was a good amount of European food like ham, cheese, bread, cereal, coffee, juice, and the rest was local staples like guava, noodles, dumplings, sweet cakey breads, hard boiled quail eggs, etc. There was pho available but I figure that I can have that in the following days. And really, who wants hotel pho. Pfft.
My roommates and I were so early to breakfast that we had some spare time to go get water and exchange money. Who knew that I could be a millionaire before I even finished college? (I took out about $100 dollars as 2 million dong.) After buying our water, we went back to the hotel, grabbed our schnazzy new shirts, and zoomed off into the busy streets of Ho Chi Minh City to go meet the students of UEF.
Selfies. Selfies. Selfies. Seriously, the UEF students put flower leis around our necks and just went to town taking pictures of us, with us, for us... There was a really nice ceremony somewhere in between with girls dancing to "V-pop" music, I guess I'll call it, and traditional music. We received a gift of more schnazzy shirts, cloth for our very own traditional Vietnamese wardrobe, and of course our language and history books for "work" part of the trip.
So let me address the title of this post more specifically. I've always told my classmates, friends, parents, family, lover, etc. that there is a difference between particular ways to say "meh." and *YOU* all thought that *I* was the crazy one??? The Vietnamese built an entire language around different ways to say the same word, and it means something completely different. Just... what?? I'll post a picture of the workbook later. I tried to take notes, but its hard to take notes on such a musically inclined language.
After the language class, we went to get lunch at the local eatery. The food was really good. I ate a lot of rice, green beans and beef, and friend chicken balls... Surprisingly tasty, they are. Then the girls got fitted for our traditional dresses. Even though I hate the pattern I got, I suppose it's not like I will wear it very often, but it will be fun for a while. Then we joined back with the guys and relaxed in the lounge on the eighth floor of the building that the eatery was in until it was time to go to HUTech. When we got there, I was surprised that the two buildings behind a gate were the main campus. But it made sense after talking to the VP of HUTech because there is no dormitory for the students. About 40% of the students are from HCM and the rest... I wish I had asked where they stay if they are from other provinces. I am really surprised with the system of education. They have final exams and then they have a national exam that determines where you can apply kind of. This is similar to the SATs I would expect, but I'm not sure why you would want to go to a private University if you can test into a high level public University for cheaper. Eh. (See look, I speak Vietnamese.)
After HUTech, we went back to the hotel before dinner. I was lucky to get some shut eye, but I was exhausted for dinner. We have been warned many times to drink more water!! So many people are getting dehydrated.
We walked to the restaurant which was maybe half of a mile away, but it was crazy humid of course. The restaurant was beautiful though. There were lights hanging down from the trees and purple scarves hanging down from the fences. It was just kinda cool looking. We walked around the restaurant because they do the cooking in a really odd way, personally I find it inefficient. They had small stations set up around the ground floor outside of the restaurant for different types of food like soup, noodles, rice wraps, chicken and pork skewers, fish sauces, drinks, etc. It was cool too see, but really really hot.
Dinner was strange. I guess I'm learning that I don't like Vietnamese food(?). The taste doesn't bother me, but its more of a textural thing and knowing what's actually in what I'm eating. I don't like that many things are very gummy, and I get scared that I'm eating intestines or clams, which I also don't like. What I did eat was really good. I had a fried pork egg roll, quail egg in crab soup, noodles, and roasted pork. To drink, I had watermelon juice, thanks to Allen's request for the whole table, and this strange coconut milk and jelly drink. It was a lot like bubble tea, which wasn't so bad.
I was kind of terrified of the shrimp with their heads still on (I blame my stressful experience in France oh so many years ago). It got even worse when a few of the Plus 3 people got adventurous and tried the eye balls. There were other foods on the table, but again, meats in jelly are not that appetizing and fishy veggies are not on my to try list. (To my dad, the vegetable dishes are still not as fishy as that one dish you had in America.) All in all, it was a fine dinner. I was mostly excited to go back and shower after the short walk back to Victory.
As I sit here looking back at the day, I realize that it was very long, but the days can only get better, I think. I am excited to meet new people, make friends, have some fun, and learn some more sounds to make at people that actually mean something in a country on the other side of the world.
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