Our last day in Vietnam lasted forever and ever. The "short" of it all-
Basketball and soccer. Praise Jesus that I didn't have to participate in basketball. When we arrived to the indoor court, everyone was taken aback by how physically built the team was. The guys were actually tall and kinda muscly, and I probably would've died with my hand-eye coordination. Our makeshift basketball team lost pretty badly, but soccer? That's an entirely difference story. I missed playing pickup, and it was pretty fun. They didn't have a great team by any means, I think they were putting a team together when we got there, just like us. By the end of it, my face was so red from the heat and running around. (Yes, I did remain hydrated. No, I didn't die.) After the games, we took a bunch of pictures and exchanged gifts. I gave away candy and some Pennsylvania playing cards for my friend Tran. The pictures of me on this treacherous day are terrible, and I remember thinking, "All I want it air conditioning and my cat."
After mingling, we moved on to find some lunch. All of us were terribly hungry. After making a quick mistake stop and trying some iced tea (it tasted like pure honey- not my cup of tea, pardon the pun), we found lunch at some small place with North Vietnamese noodles. There was a bunch of strange noodles that looked gummy, so I didn't want them. The soup was mighty fine, but it was so hot that it was impossible to enjoy it that much. In the same place, we had a coconut bubble tea, which was really good. I'll probably miss the "desserts" most in Vietnam. They were all slightly sweet and refreshing.
After lunch, we got back to the hotel, and I was so tired that I took an awesome nap, got some snacks from the coop, and made sure that I had everything backed. We had to put on our traditional dresses and suits to take tons of pictures, and then we headed over to dinner. Everyone was excited, and you could feel the energy going around the bus. When we got close to the water, everyone immediately thought we were going on this huge pirate ship-looking boat. Unfortunately, we just had dinner on a smaller boat next to it. It was such a pleasant evening with the breeze from the Saigon River. Dinner was good. Mostly I remember how happy I was to have rolls of bread, how weird it was to have butter in my fried shrimp, and how absolutely delicious the beef stew was. There was also a hot pot, which was similar to the one that we had at the beech, but it wasn't as exciting as the bread...
We took so many pictures from the side of the boat, and it was really strange to see the city at night from a boat. The water was muddy brown, but something about it was still very lively and cool. Kate bought a cake that said "UEF & Pitt Friends Forever" which was really sweet. I'll miss Kate so much. I can't wait until she comes to visit next summer!
After the boat ride, we got on the bus, sang a little ABBA, and arrived back at the hotel where we would be until about 3 am. Meanwhile, we all packed, Kate and I took a quick nap, and we went to Vo Van Tanh and Pasteur streets where there is a weird, tall tower that people can sit on or under, and there's a huge pond with some lifted sidewalks to casually stroll around. We were there until about 1am when I wanted to leave. I was so tired that I just had to relax a bit.
When we got to the airport, Kate was more than upset, and I was sad that we had to leave her behind. It felt like she should have been coming with us, but we had to go. At the airport, security took my bullet necklaces. I guess I should have figured, but there was no gun and no gunpowder, so I hadn't really thought of it. We got through security easily, but everyone was so exhausted. I slept on the plane from HCM to Hong Kong. B Shultz abandoned us along the way, but as he said, he left his magic wand in the hotel. We had to take a few buses and wind around some hoops to get to the gate in Hong Kong where we left behind Allen (I'll miss that guy the most I think), Sam, Akhil, and someone else... They all had to find their own way back to America. I was excited to be going home, and I sat next to Chris and Aster again. I think Chris and Aster were two of my favorite people from the trip as well because they were always kind and looked at (most) things with a positive attitude. That's such a rarity. On the plane to Newark, the food of course was terrible, the sleepin' was rough, and the movies were long. It was easy to close my eyes, but not to get rest. When we got to Newark, we had to go through customs, and I found my favorite Matt Russell returning home from Germany Plus 3. I love finding people in random places. Aster and I were so ready for American food, and we bolted to get muffins, yogurt, and cliff bars. We had to wait a few hours for the next plane (after Matt's plane) to get back to Pittsburgh. I was so so happy to see my parents and boyfriend waiting for me once we got back. I was exhausted, and I knew that I would sleep for a long long time.
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