Day One

So we got into Vietnam last night at around 10:30, after over 30 hours of transit from Pittsburgh. We were told that every year someone's baggage gets lost, and I was sure I would be the victim, but luckily everyone's luggage made it to Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon as the locals say). Dr. Berman and our Vietnamese guide Tin met us at the airport and took us to the hotel, where I was too pumped to sleep, and killed time by unpacking and exploring the hotel with my roommate.

The next day Clarissa and I woke up at 5:45 and went down to the hotel breakfast, where we got our first glimpse of the Saigon traffic. The breakfast was what we would consider lunch, but it was my favorite meal of the day. I tried everything from the fresh juice, fresh fruit, to the dumplings, fried rice, and famous beef pho soup. We sat right by the window and watched as the streets filled up, and the motorbikes weaved in and out of cars, buses, and other motorbikes, onto the sidewalk if it seemed necessary.

Motorbike traffic

Beef pho and some more traffic.

I thought New York City traffic was something, but there are 4 times the amount of vehicles, smaller and maneuverable, making the traffic much more intense and scary. I decided I wanted to ride on the bikes as soon as possible.

After breakfast we roamed the streets and got some cafe sua da, which is an iced coffee with condensed sweet milk and was one of the highlights of my day. This was my first real experience with the language barrier, and it was weird but manageable. The culture is so different here and certain things are offensive here that aren't at home, so I try to keep my gestures to a minimum. Crossing your legs means you think everyone is below your feet, ergo below you, and crossing your arms means you are uninterested by what a person is saying. Anyway, we got this amazing coffee for less than a dollar and then headed back to the hotel because it was time to go to school.

We arrived at UEF to a banner welcoming us as well as some people taking video and pictures. We went into a big room where we met the Vietnamese students we would see over the next two weeks, did introductions, and then had some welcome performances. The first one was a hip hop dance that was kind of sexy, which I was not expecting at all.... like at all.... And then the second one was more traditional, and at the end one of the dancers gave me a rice farming hat, which I was planning on purchasing, but now don't have to. Then we went to our language class, which was ridiculous. We were there for an hour, the end product being the ability to speak a poor, poor attempt at two sentences; Hello, my name is Brooke, and See you again. The language is fascinating, though. The alphabet was almost the same, but there are 5 different sounds for every vowel, each meaning a totally different word, which is what we focused on learning the first day. The teacher is very good, and there are two Vietnamese students to every one of us who sit next to us and help with pronunciation. I should be able to bargain in the market by the end of the week. So they say. We left the school after this and had lunch down the street, where you had the option to fish for your shrimp in a little pool right next to the table. We skipped on this luxury and just ate our lunch and headed out. Lunch consisted of rice, shrimp that still had a face, pork, rice, a broths soup, a slimy vegetable, some beef, and rice. It was served family style and was pretty good, but I preferred breakfast.

Then we went to the U.S. Embassy and had a really interesting conversation with 2 men who were public servants and serving in Vietnam. Their jobs sounded awesome, and made me start to think about doing what they do, although I'm not entirely sure what that is. What I do know is that with this job, they get assigned to a country that they have to serve, and they go through intensive language training, for up to two years, and then they live in the country for an extended amount of time. This sounded like such a cool job, because you would be totally immersed in the country's culture and language, but they said it wasn't always easy.

After, we were given a tour of the rest of the embassy, and this was another highlight of the day. We stood on the ground where the Tet Offensive took place, some of the landmarks still exactly where they were. We learned some recently declassified information about this attack, and then were shown the to conflicting memorials of the event, one commemorating the US soldiers, and one commemorating the Vietcong. This was so eye-opening for me because it really shows how history can be skewed. We were warned that there will be more of these conflicting viewpoints later in the trip.

For our welcome dinner, we went to Wrap and Roll closer to the center of Ho Chi Minh. There was too much food for us all to handle, and one kid fell asleep at the table because we were all so jet lagged. I went back to the hotel hoping to go to sleep, but some Vietnamese students were waiting there to hang out with us. With motorbikes. Suddenly not so tired anymore, I hopped on the bike ready to take off into the traffic. It was so different being on the bike compared to the bus, and I felt like a local. They took us around the city and then to an ice cream place. The motorbikes were my favorite thing so far. But it's only the first day. More language class and Phu My Hung visit tomorrow!