Day 110: The First Day Back

Today is my first day back in the United States. My sleep schedule is completely off and I spent most of the day sleeping. Let's just say I will probably only be seeing my parents in the morning and at night for the next few days as my body adjusts to the time difference.

There have been a few culture shocks that aren't necessarily hard to adjust to but things that I had just forgotten. Using a knife seems like a new concept since I haven't used one since before I left for Vietnam. I forgot that you don't have to throw toilet paper in the garbage can in the United States--you can flush it right down the toilet! As we passed a car while driving on the highway, I immediately wondered what job the person had that allowed them to own a car. It seems I temporary forgot that people in the United States own cars and not motorbikes. It's amazing to me to see all of the stuff that we own, after visiting houses that were so simple. Finding food now involves opening the fridge or cupboard and being shocked at all of the processed foods that are in there, instead of heading out to the street to buy fresh fruit or freshly prepared food. (The food has also caused a few stomach problems.) The thing that I'm having the most trouble adjusting to, however, is the cold. My hands and feet feel like ice, I'm wearing two shirts, my heaviest sweatpants, and am constantly wrapped in two blankets. The sad thing is that I know it is going to get much colder.

As promised, here are some pictures from my last night in Vietnam. A night of lasts: last motorbike ride, last street meal, last night with friends. A night full of laughing, memories, reminiscing, and tears. A night that went by way too fast.

Our last meal together--bun bo (noodles with beef).

Saying goodbye to Thao's sister over smoothies, fruit, and fried meat.

A small farewell party on my last night.

Cong really enjoys taking selfies.

Binh preparing the watermelon for our party.

I can't wait any longer to eat!

Cong showing off the watermelon.

A picture with Sa, whom I met at English Club.

Day 108: The Last Day

I can't believe it is here. The last day has come and with it all kinds of emotions. But I couldn't have asked for a better day because it was just like my first. I started the day off in Co-Op Mart where I was stared at, laughed at, and pointed at. For some reason, it was an absolutely great start to the day.

I met up with Cate and got to meet her parents, who immediately welcomed me with warm embraces. I sat with them as they ate breakfast on the front steps of the dorm, something that has become such a routine in my life. I then walked with Cate and her family to the bus stop because Cate wanted to show them Open University. It was such a great experience to be seeing Vietnam for the first time again through their eyes.

After walking around District 1 for a little bit and seeing a few major sites, we got lunch at the restaurant that is one of the first ones we ate at as a group from Loyola. I had com tam with pork and pork and egg cake, and it was exactly what I wanted. I sat with Cate and her family as they discussed all kinds of things, and it was actually a little strange to have a familial feeling in Vietnam. 

With lunch over, I said goodbye to her family and Cate, promising to see her again in Chicago. My plan was to take a bus back to the dormitory, but after waiting for awhile I didn't want to waste my time. I took a xe om (my last one!) to get back as soon as  possible. I got back and met up with Binh, who was taking part in the singing competition being hosted in the dormitory. Before I could listen to him sing, though, the English Club needed me to attend a meeting they were holding with another group. They needed to use the TV in the Loyola lounge and could only use the lounge if I was present, so I had to sit in with them. It was actually super boring, because the whole meeting was in Vietnamese so I had no idea what was going on.

 Once the meeting had finished, we went back down to courtyard to hear Binh and his friends sing. He gave me a special shout-out before singing the song, and everybody clapped before he started to sing. Of course he and his friends sang well, and it means so much that he did that for me.

We spent a few more minutes together before Thao came to pick me up. Thao is competing in a singing competition tomorrow for scholarship money and wanted me to come to her rehearsal. It was in District 9, which is quite a long drive, but it was worth it to hear her sing. She sang "My Heart Will Go On" and it was so good! Once she had received some feedback, she took me to where she lives and we got street food. It was my first time having bun bo (beef noodles) and she took me to a place where tourists don't go, so I got plenty of stares and comments. After supper, we got smoothies, fruit, and fried meat with her sister. She then took me back to the dorm and we said our tearful goodbyes.

The night was not over yet, though, as I had a goodbye party with Binh, Cong, Sa, and Yen. They bought fruit and we sat in the lounge and ate it. It was kind of awkward because we were all sad and nobody knew what to say, but it was so thoughtful. I also had a few people from English Club come up to me while I was in the dormitory and tell me goodbye, calling me the most friendly foreigner. How is it possible that it is already time to leave this wacky, crazy, loveable country already?

There may be a post after this containing some photos of the final goodbyes. I'm a whirlwind of emotions and everything makes me want to cry. Thank you for a wonderful time, Vietnam, and I can't wait to be back.

Day 107: December 5, 2014

This morning Cate and I got breakfast together before coming back to the dorm to finish our homework. I am now officially done with writing papers! All I have left is to make a video for environmental science class that is due on December 18. Cate packed all of her stuff and left the dorm, and it was surprisingly sad. She's not leaving yet, just staying at the hotel where her parents will be staying, but it's very weird not to have her around anymore.

I also started packing, and what a headache. For some reason I have way more stuff than I thought I did, which makes packing very difficult. Sa, a girl from English club, and Cong came by while I was packing so I spent a while talking to them as a break.

When I was basically done packing I took a nap. Around 9pm I met up with Yen who bought me some corn and bubble tea. The plans for the rest of the night were to head out with the other Loyola students and a few of the partners to celebrate our last night together, but before going I stopped by the community room to see English Club practice the play they are putting on.

Here are a few pictures from last night:

A few of the great partner students that I became friends with this semester.

An interesting picture of Thao and I.

A much better picture of Thao and I.

Day 106: December 4, 2014

This morning Cate and I grabbed breakfast outside of the dorm (I had fried rice since the banh mi place was out of eggs) before buying an orchid from this flower place near the dorm. We then took a taxi to the Vietnam Center, where we dropped off the flower as a present from all of the students this semester. The entire staff seemed to love it and were very excited; Hoang took a picture of Cate and I with Julio and Chris and the gift. We stayed to chat with Chris for awhile before also returning our textbooks, in which I got quite a bit of money back.

We made it back to the dorm for lunch, and we both ate with Binh, Cong, and some of their friends. The popular item for the day was a whole grilled fish with rice, but I just had a fried egg with rice. After lunch, Cate left to go do some homework and I spent a little more time with everyone before also having to go back and do my homework. The good news is that I am now basically done with all of my tests. Woohoo!

We had a farewell party with all of the partner students at Chris' house, and thankfully it was not a tearjerker. We had good food, made by the partners, and a fun time just sitting and chatting with them. Chris basically told me that if I ever come back to let him know and he would either hire me or help me find a job. After a few hours, I said what could possibly be some goodbyes (who knows if I'll see them again or not) before Wendy gave me a ride back to the dorm.

Once I came back to the dorm, I met up with Binh and he and his friends came to the lounge on our floor. They played guitar and practiced singing for awhile before they decided they had to go back to their rooms and called it a night.

Day 105: December 3, 2014

This morning I went to have breakfast and headed to the banh mi place, but this time I decided to try her fried rice instead. She asked me how much I wanted (15,000d worth or 20,000d worth) before scooping it into a Styrofoam container for me take. It was pretty good (you can't screw up fried rice) although it did have some strange meat on it.

Our history final was emailed to us today, so I spent the rest of the morning getting a rough draft for that finished. Binh and I got lunch at the canteen and today I had rice with pork and vegetables. We sat with some of his friends that I know and the little boy whose dad runs the canteen came over to talk to us. He's only eight years old but is pretty good at English! Some people from Nestle were also in the canteen promoting their drinks, so we had some Milo, which I believe is like hot chocolate. Except they drink it with ice here because who wants a hot drink in this country.

I came back to my room and did some more homework before heading to Open University. The Loyola students were asked to attend a meeting they were having in search of new partners for next semester. A lot of students showed up, but the meeting was very different than it would have been if it was held in the United States. In the US, this meeting would have been held at several different times over the course of the past month to work around students' schedules. The deadline for the application would also not be a week away. When Vien said the students needed to have their application in by December 10, I was shocked! Not only that, but interviews then take place the next day!

After the meeting, Dan and I walked to District 1 as we both had some stuff we needed to buy. We headed to a bookstore, and a guy started talking to Dan. He asked him where we were from, if we were friends, and of course mentioned how tall I was. I met a guy in the back who asked where I was from, how long I had been here (his eyes opened pretty wide when I said I've been here since August), and then asked for my help in choosing a gift for a 16-year old girl. After Dan and I purchased our items, the guy who had talked to Dan asked if he could take a picture of us. We said sure, and he asked for our emails and promised to send it to us. Well, here it is.

Only in Vietnam do you get your picture taken like a celebrity does.

Our next stop was Saigon Square, and on our walk there I got a text message from Binh asking where I was. I told him Saigon Square, and he responded that he was also there. It was very weird! He helped me purchase some more items, I helped him pick out some shirts, and because of him I was able to save a little bit of money. It really helps to be with a Vietnamese person when bartering! I asked him why he decided to text me if he was at Saigon Square, and his first reply was that he knew I had a meeting so he thought I might be in District 1 while his second reply was that he just had a feeling we were near each other.

By this point Dan had gone back to the dorm, so I told Binh that I needed to go to Ben Thanh to get a few more items. We walked there and once again he helped me get lower prices. One woman offered her first price as 120,000d and Binh countered with 90,000d. After a little bartering, she went down to 100,000d. Binh really wanted it to be 90,000d, but I told him I was willing to pay 100,000d. After we bought it, the woman told him that if I had come by myself she would have started the price out at 300,000d!

We were both hungry since it was already 6pm, and looked around outside the market for something to eat. Everything was pretty expensive, though. Even the street food was too expensive--a lady selling noodles wanted 45,000d for each bowl! We decided our best bet would be to come back to the dorm, and we ate at the bot chien place. I thought I had ordered nui xao trung but instead received mi xao trung. No worries, though, as it was still good. While we were eating, Alex brought her parents and Thinh to eat there, and it was pretty funny to be at a street vendor and hear more English being spoken then Vietnamese.

Tonight was the last night of Circle Talk, which was going completely fine until everybody at the end started wishing me farewell and a safe trip. Most of these people I only know through English Club and Circle Talk, yet having them say those things just made me completely sad as it reminded me that this trip is coming to a close and I leave so soon. When asked how long I was here, I used to be able to answer that I have three months left but the days have slowly dropped down. Two months. One month. Three weeks. One week. Three days. How is it possible that time has passed so quickly and that I've grown so attached to this country and the people I've met?

Day 104: December 2, 2014

Cate and I had made plans to get a real Vietnamese breakfast this morning from a street vendor, but when we woke up at 9am neither of us were really feeling it. So she got her typical breakfast and I got mine (this time with one egg instead of two), and we sat on the front steps of the dormitory. When I was getting my banh mi, the woman working, who speaks a little English, asked me if we have rice in our country. I tried to explain that we have it but don't eat it all the time like they do. She told me that tomorrow when I come for breakfast, I need to get the rice they have because it is very good. Sounds good to me!

The morning was spent working on my sociology final paper. Here's the thing--it's a super short paper because it's only eight pages. It takes about 15 minutes to write one page. That means that if I just put aside two hours, TWO MEASLEY HOURS, I could have this paper finished. But it's the idea of having to sit down and write a paper, of having to actually do work, that makes me continue to put it off. I only have four pages left to write though!

My original plan for the day was to leave the dormitory around 12:30 and go finish my souvenir shopping. Plans, however, change. Binh asked me to get lunch with him and I was once again responsible for choosing where to go. Let me tell you, when you're in a foreign country and have not spent the last four months eating at restaurants it is very hard to find a place. I tried to use Google to find a close place nearby, but all of the places listed on English sites are in Districts 1 or 3 as they cater more towards tourists. I eventually just told him the name of a street, and we got on his motorbike and headed there before we found a place to eat. We actually ended up eating at -18 Celsius, the same restaurant across from Open University. I got what I'm going to call a chicken rice omelet. It was a very thin egg, like an omelet, stuffed with chicken rice. It was pretty good, although it sounds a little strange. We stayed at the restaurant for quite a long time as we had to wait out the downpour outside, but we spent it watching YouTube videos and learning that it is possible to send/receive messages from a Vietnamese phone to an American phone. (Um.. weather? Didn't you know that it is the dry season now?)

The students at University of Technology don't have any classes for the next few weeks as they prepare for final exams. Theirs are much harder than ours, though. Try writing 60 page reports instead of an eight page paper. Most students spend these weeks studying 24/7 (that's not an exaggeration), but Binh told me today that he had enough studying done so we could spend the entire afternoon together. We came back and got ice cream from Jollibee, walked around the arcade a little, and then he bought some type of melon that he wanted me to try. We came back to the dorm to eat it (it was pretty good) and found the English movie channel on TV. Around 6pm we headed to the canteen to get supper. It's funny how in this week of lasts I am still able to celebrate a first--my first time eating a meal at the canteen! Binh showed me what he wanted and then asked me to order it for him. I think he really just gets a kick out of seeing me speaking Vietnamese (he asked me to order the ice cream today, also). I got grilled fish with rice, and I'm still not used to purposefully eating the entire fish, bones, eyes, and all. I pulled out the spine but ate the rest of it, but it's safe to say that my eating habits will for sure change in the United States. Fat and bones no longer bother me!

He had to leave to go tutor, so I came back to my room to (attempt) to do a little more homework. Yen came and gave me a present, which was a Bach Khoa polo. It's a great gift, and now I can wear my clothing from both Open and Bach Khoa! The rest of the evening was spent talking with some of the other Loyola students as well as dreading the upcoming few days.

Day 103: Last Day of Class

I can't believe that this is it. The final week. Even writing those words is bringing tears to my eyes. It's a week full of lasts and goodbyes, a week full of sadness and way too many emotions. Are you sure there isn't anyway I can stay here?

This morning I had my (now typical) banh mi op la, but this time I got it in front of Open University instead of in front of the dorm. We had our Vietnamese final, which was super easy and I can't believe I was even worried about it. It consisted of both a writing and speaking portion, and let's just say I'm pretty sure I passed both parts with flying colors.

I came back to the dorm and met with Binh for lunch. Apparently it was my turn to decide where we should eat, so I told him about the café next to DRD. It's a nice place with a good atmosphere, although the food is a little more expensive (and by expensive I mean that it's 60,000d for a meal instead of 20,000d). He had no idea where it was, so I had to come up with the directions to get us there. Surprisingly, though, we made it without any real issues. Okay that's a lie--there were two times when I didn't realize I should have told him to turn until after we passed the street. It's also very hot today, so on the way there he kept joking that we were going to become barbeque under the sun.

We went into the café and Binh told me order for him, as well as order it in Vietnamese. My pronunciation was absolutely horrid, but he just smiled and said he was able to understand what I ordered. The waiter brought us our meals, which were macaroni with diced beef and diced beef with French fries. We ate our meals and sat there for awhile talking before coming back to the dorm.

We got back and had some ice cream from the Jollibee in Co-Op before going inside the dorm. Binh is in charge of writing a drama and had to meet with someone to talk about the budget, but the person wasn't around so we headed back outside and got some banh flan with coffee poured over top. Delicious as usual. We then went back to the dorm so Binh could meet with this person, and afterwards he decided that we should buy fruit and tea to celebrate--she ended up giving him 60,000 more dong than what she had originally said. We sat on the back steps of the dormitory and ate the fruit before we both had to leave.

Environmental science class was next on the list, so I got on the bus and headed there. We each had to give a presentation in class but we were done early and back at the dorm by the time class was supposed to end. I grabbed some corn, talked to Cate for awhile, and put away my laundry. I am officially done with classes and have the rest of the week completely free. Just kidding, I should probably write these papers. And then I have to start thinking about packing and leaving...

Day 102: November 30, 2014

Today was a lazy day, meaning that this will be a very short post. I was supposed to go with Binh back to his house, but he ended up having to leave last night so I couldn't go with him. So this morning I woke up at 10am and did some studying before getting lunch with Cate. Our goal was to walk around until we found a rice place where both of us could eat (she's a vegetarian) and we ended up eating in an alleyway nearby. I got rice with some of the delicious tender pork and duck egg that I had had in Thao's hometown.

We came back to the dorm and studied for our Vietnamese test tomorrow. The rest of the afternoon was filled with some attempts at studying, watching a lot of YouTube videos, and at one point having Cate enter my room with her declaring that she wanted to try to braid my hair a specific way. We had a meeting at Chris' house at 5:30pm, so we all left the dorm at 5. We were greeted with the smell of Thanksgiving; turns out Chris was so disappointed with the Thanksgiving we had at Black Cat that he wanted to give us another one. He had prepared turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, and stuffing, and we all ate a meal together while wrapping things up for the semester. We had what I would like to introduce as Thanksgiving banh mi: French bread stuffed with Thanksgiving leftovers. It was a great meal, made even better by the fact that Chris had prepared all of it along with homemade eggnog and bourbon. After our quick meeting was over, we sat down to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas. When the movie was over, we came back to the dorm and did some last minute studying before basically giving up for the night.

Day 101: November 29, 2014

At 10am this morning Yen and I met up and walked to her campus, where there was a fair going on nearby. Not a fair as in a carnival, but a place where people come to sell clothes, housewares, food, and other such items. We walked around for a bit before grabbing some snow cones and sitting down to eat them. Then we continued to walk around, and Yen bought some clothes for her boyfriend. Some people made some comments to me, which Yen kindly translated, my favorite one being that the owner of the shop wished she had models as tall as me. Yen said everyone was staring (yes, they do that everyday), and jokingly said that it's like love at first sight.. except they can't speak to me.

When we finished walking around, we headed to get lunch nearby. I had pork and rice while she got fish and rice, and I'm pretty sure she ended up giving half of her fish to me. I bent a spoon in the process of trying to cut up my pork and rendered it unusable. It has been four months since I've used a knife and it will most definitely be weird using one again back in the States!

She then took me to her favorite sweet soup place because she knows how much I love that stuff. We sat on the little plastic stools and ate it, her getting something that is supposedly good for you and me getting corn sweet soup. I still can't get over the fact that dessert here is made with vegetables. I bought Yens, and she turned right around and bought me two more to eat later. I try to be nice and treat her, yet she treats me!

Enjoying our snow cones at the fair.

We walked back to the dorm, and man what a walk that was. It has felt so HOT here lately. We were so hot and exhausted this morning that Yen even took the elevator up to her room. I've never seen her do that before--she always takes the stairs! I spent the afternoon studying for my Vietnamese test before Cong, one of the partners, came by and asked me for help on the meetings for English club. We went to the community room and I basically just made things a little more professional sounding and fixed his small grammatical errors.

We were working in the lounge, and there was a student there who was finishing building a project for his class. He had built this airplane type thing with four propellers and had a remote control hooked up to it so that he could send it flying into the sky. It was actually quite amazing. Sometimes I forget that engineers actually have to build things and don't just learn from textbooks like most of us do.

I met Thao for supper, and we headed off to McDonald's. It was such a classy experience. All the Vietnamese were dressed up and the place was absolutely crowded. We walked in, and I told Thao that I would be ordering for both of us. I ordered a Big Mac meal supersized, a deluxe cheeseburger, a McChicken, and a McRoyal. It was 255,000d ($12.75) for all of it. Thao wanted to get chili sauce for the food, as there was a chili sauce dispenser, but I steered her away from it and said that we only use ketchup in the United States. The food came and I started her off with the McChicken, which turned out to be her overall favorite. The deluxe cheeseburger tasted just as boring as they do in the States, and the Big Mac was actually a huge disappointment. The McRoyal, however, tasted more like a Whopper from Burger King than anything. Thao thought that the fries were super salty (I actually thought they were pretty good) and couldn't understand why there were cucumbers on the sandwiches. I explained to her that they were pickles, and pulled one off for her to try. She bit into and made the funniest face because it was way too salty for her. We finished our meal with the sweet soup that Yen had bought me this morning and headed off on our next adventure.

Introducing Thao to McDonald's!

...and she took a picture of me.

We made our way to Diamond Plaza, where we walked around the stores for a little while looking at Black Friday sales and taking pictures with the Christmas decorations. Thao had said that she was stuffed at McDonald's, but around 9pm she was hungry again. She asked me if I wanted Dairy Queen, her treat, and so we drove to the nearest one. This time I made her order a small Snickers Blizzard and I got a small Pineapple Cookie Crunch Blizzard. Let's just say that I'm really good at picking out weird flavors. Around 10pm she dropped me back off at the dorm and I called it a night after experiencing a very Western evening.

Waiting for her presents under the tree.

Celebrating the Christmastime!

Dairy Queen round two!

100 HAPPY DAYS!

How is it possible that I've already been here for 100 days? Time has absolutely flown by and I'm loving every moment of it. It's so crazy and saddening to think that this upcoming weekend marks the beginning of the end. But the time so far has been absolutely great and I expect what's left to be just as fantastic! And they truly have been 100 happy days. There isn't time for sadness and homesickness when you're exploring a new country and making new friends! I could write about some of the happiest moments here, but how do you pick just a few when everyday is so wonderful?

The Loyola student that I've gotten closest to, Cate Walters. Everyday puts those kinds of smiles on our faces!

 

Some mornings I wake up much earlier than I need to, and today was one of those days. Instead of going back to sleep, though, I Skyped with my family who was celebrating Thanksgiving. Kind of weird to see all their faces through a computer screen, but nice to talk to them for a few minutes.

Cate and I headed to class, each grabbing breakfast and eating in front of the dorm before we left. I got my typical banh mi op la while Cate got her typical bun thit nuong. We just missed the bus, as in we were crossing the street when it started to pull away, so we had to wait for the next one to come. Class was class, nothing new and not too exciting. Afterwards, I came back to the dormitory with the intention of getting some work done.

My intentions did not work out very well, though. While I was able to make a study guide for Vietnamese, that was about it. I spent a lot of time doing absolutely nothing and acting like a total bum. I went over my theology paper again as well as my environmental science project but decided that I really don't want to change anything. I then felt exhausted, so I decided to take a nap. I'm pretty sure that my tiredness lately comes from being bored and not physically tired. I will have to stay out of the dorm more for the next week!

When I woke up, I wrote about a page and a half for my sociology paper (just 6.5 more pages to go!) and talked to Cate when she came back from class. I grabbed some corn for dinner, and was somewhat disappointed to find that the woman was still not there but instead was the man. I shouldn't complain too much though, as the corn he makes is a little sweeter.

It's kind of weird being in the dormitory on a Friday, and it's made even weirder by the fact that people's families are starting to come so they are spending time with them. It actually seems a little lonely, or maybe that's because I did not come out of my room at all this afternoon. I also forgot that they show movies in the dormitory on Fridays, so it's kind of nice to be listening to a movie while I write this.

Now if only I had another 100 days to spend here!

Day 99: Happy Thanksgiving!

It's hard to believe that today is Thanksgiving. I'm used to celebrating this holiday when it is cold and there is sometimes snow on the ground, not when it is 90 degrees!

This morning Cate and I got breakfast before heading to class, me now basically becoming a regular at the banh mi place across the street. We headed to Vietnamese class only to find out that we have a final test on Monday. Uh.. thanks for telling us! After class, Alex, Tori, Summer, and I bought some Open University clothing. I got a zip-up jacket that has the name of the university on it for 245,000d (or a little more than $12). We got on the bus to come back to the dormitory and I spent some time doing homework. The good news is that I finished my theology paper! One down, a few more to go. Cate and I got bot chien for lunch because we both needed a study break, and then it was back to the grind of paper writing. Actually, more like the grind of not writing papers since I am really good at writing a few pages and deciding that that is enough work for the day.

We had a big Thanksgiving dinner tonight at a restaurant called Black Cat, provided for Loyola. Our OU partners got to come with us, and it was great to introduce them to an American tradition. It was also really great to see Thao again--first time since before I left for the trip to northern and central Vietnam! As the food came past us, I made sure she tried EVERYTHING. Turkey, ham, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, roasted pumpkin, stuffing, orzo, green beans, cornbread, macaroni and cheese, sausage, bread, pie. It was like a traditional Thanksgiving, only celebrated in Vietnam. She quickly became full, but I told her that she had to eat more. That's what you do on Thanksgiving after all!

Celebrating Thanksgiving with some of our Vietnamese friends.

Never have I taken so many selfies before coming to this country!

When our meal was over, Thao, Poem, and I hopped on some motorbikes and drove to the nearby park. We walked around the city for a little bit, stopped to take some pictures in front of Christmas decorations, and walked around some more. It seriously felt like I could have been in Chicago, except that it was decorated for Christmas in summer heat. It just seems so strange to me that District 10 and District 1 can have such distinct feels. I live in the part of the city that I would consider "more" Vietnamese while District 1 is catered to the tourists.

It's Christmastime in the city.. with weather that reminds me of summer.

I got back to the dormitory around 10:30, and I hopped in on the remaining part of English club. They celebrated November birthdays, so we all had some cake. I also got to share information on Thanksgiving with them, which was actually pretty great. When the guards told us we had to go, a group of us went to the canteen and talked for awhile before heading back to our rooms.

Day 98: November 26, 2014

I grabbed a banh mi op la for breakfast this morning before heading to class with Cate and Alex. I used to buy fruit from Co-Op to eat for breakfast, but with such limited time remaining I decided that it would be better if I eat Vietnamese food all the time. It was well worth it, as the sandwich was so good with the soy sauce and pate. But let's not talk about what pate is, because then the sandwich isn't so great.

We got to history class and learned about Vietnamese history after the war before watching a documentary about Agent Orange. The guy who made the video came to our class to show it to us. He grew up in Vietnam during the war but is now an American citizen--ONLY an American citizen as he pointed out. I think he stressed that to show us that he didn't make this film as a Vietnamese angry with the US government but instead as a concerned citizen of the States who realized what affects Agent Orange had on all people in the war, including the soldiers from the US. The film obviously had some pretty graphic images of those affected, but it's one of those things where you feel like you have to watch it because of how much they suffer. The crazy part about the whole story is that he used to work for Disney but was laid off while he was making this film. Later, he found out that Monsanto and Disney are basically financial partners. Since Monsanto is the one that produced the majority of Agent Orange for the war, they didn't want him to make a video about the effects it had and so Disney laid him off.

I came back to the dormitory after class and got lunch with Binh at the Co-Op Mart. I had some fried rice with fresh spring rolls. We got some 3,000d ($0.15) ice cream for dessert from Jolibee before he had to head off for class. I'm definitely not going to be used to paying Western prices for things when I return. For example, my banh mi this morning was 13,000d, or $0.65. Our Vietnamese professor the other day told us that 13,000d for a banh mi was expensive, but I ordered it this morning with two eggs instead of one. In sociology yesterday, we watched a short video about Vietnamese food in Chicago. The place that was featured sold banh mi for $7! Not only is it made differently than actual banh mis in Vietnam (jalapenos instead of chili peppers, soy sauce with gluten instead of soy sauce without), but it is also over 10 times more expensive!

I came back to the dormitory and took a nap before beginning some of my final papers. It's weird, because although we are still here next week we don't have any classes. Not complaining though as that gives me plenty of time to do what I want! I decided to get some fried corn for supper and headed out, but the lady wasn't there! Instead, there was a man in her spot who seemed to have the exact same cart and everything. Maybe he was her husband. At least that's what I'm telling myself, because otherwise I feel like I broke some bond between us. I came back to the room and spent a while talking to Cate before realizing that I was getting absolutely zero paper-writing done and that I should just call it a night.

Day 97: November 25, 2014

This morning before class Cate and I met up because she needed help filming a video but also so we could study before our sociology quiz. We headed to class and took the quiz, which was not as bad as the first one we had. We then had a lecture on food of Vietnam, complete with our professor bringing us all kinds of goodies to try. After class I came back to the dormitory and took a nap. When I woke up, I began doing some of my final projects for classes. Cate and I went to get supper, and we headed to the bot chien place, where we each had bot chien trung with 2 eggs. I bought her supper, and in return she had to come to Circle K with me because I had to buy more minutes for my phone. The rest of the night was pretty relaxing, and Cate and I spent a lot of time talking as well as spent some time talking with Sophie.

Such a short blog post because today was such a lazy day, so enjoy some pictures from the trip to Ta Kou.

The biggest Buddha statue I have ever seen!

This was actually the view from the top of Ta Kou Mountain.

Overlooking the countryside from our guesthouse.

The three Buddhist statues where I participated in the Buddhist ceremony.

A runway from the American base that was on the mountain.

Just hanging out with a gigantic millipede.

The sunset from our guesthouse.

We were at first confused as to what the perfect squares of light were, but we quickly found out that those are the dragon fruit farms! They remain lit at night to stimulate flowering.

Vien and the crab she caught during our night hike in Ta Kou.

The Ta Kou gecko, discovered by our professor's team of scientists. It exists only in the Ta Kou Nature Preserve.

I spot a frog!

A huge frog that didn't seem bothered by our presence.

Dragon fruit!

Day 96: November 24, 2014

I woke up this morning for class and quickly Skyped my parents before leaving for class. I was the only one to take the bus, and in fact there were only two of us in class! We learned the days of the week as well as how to say things like "I studied Vietnamese this morning at Open University at 8am". Binh and I made plans yesterday to get lunch, so he picked me up when I was done with classes and we headed off.

Turns out that he also needed to do his laundry, and since the house where his parents live has a washing machine we headed there. This is near University Village, where we went last week, and took 30-45 minutes by motorbike. We wore masks this time, and it definitely helped with all of the exhaust! We got to his house, but both of his parents are gone during the day. I was really impressed with his house in all honesty. His family had beds, mattresses, a kitchen table, and his room even had air conditioning. After being at Thao's aunt and uncle's, I definitely was not expecting all of the furniture! The house is located in a quiet little area of HCMC off the highway, and although Binh refers to it as the countryside it is more like a small, condensed town. It's awfully quiet, though, which is a nice change from HCMC.

After getting a tour of the house we walked to the vegetable market to buy some eggs and vegetables. The plan was that we were each in charge of making one dish, but I honestly had no idea what to do! We bought some morning glory and eggs and then headed back to the house, where Binh began to prepare lunch. He put me in charge of cleaning and preparing the morning glory, and honestly I think that's all that I could handle. In the time that I was able to get the one vegetable ready, he had already cut and chopped the meat. He basically ended up making the entire meal (because let's face it, I can't cook) and we had a pork and egg omelet, fried morning glory, some bitter vegetable with egg, and steamed rice. We sat on the floor in the living room to eat and he told me that we had to eat everything. This normally wouldn't be a problem, but there was enough food for four people! We miraculously managed to finish it all, much to the discontent of our stomachs, and it was only then that he told me he had never actually made these foods before but has only watched his mom do it. I would have had no idea if he hadn't told me, and I was very impressed because everything was so good!

Enough food to feed a family of four, yet we managed to eat all of it!

We watched some TV afterwards and found the English movie channel. I ended up falling asleep not only because I was tired but also because of all the food we had just ingested. Turns out that I was talking in my sleep, which kind of freaked Binh out because apparently I was answering his questions, and when I woke up I jumped up and walked around his house a few times. Or so he tells me. I don't really remember any of it. We washed the dishes and then got back on his motorbike to come to the dormitory.

After getting some lemon tea from the canteen, I headed up to the 12th floor to catch up with Cate and study for our sociology quiz tomorrow. Around 9pm Binh asked me if I wanted to get some beer, so we headed to a street side vendor and also had hard boiled quail eggs and chicken wings. I told him to order the chicken wings because beer and wings are a very American thing, but the chicken wings here are quite different than they are in the States. I met some of his friends who were also out getting drinks, and then we headed back to the dormitory to call it a night.

Day 95: November 23, 2014

This morning we had breakfast at the guest house where we were staying at 7:15am, which was banh mi op la. We then got on the bus, played some card games while waiting for our professors and the scientists that had come along, and left for HCMC. We stopped at a dragon fruit farm along the way and also lunch. For lunch we each received a clay pot of rice and shared chicken, two kinds of pork, vegetables, tofu, and egg. Dessert was bananas and homemade yogurt.

After our four hour bus ride, we made it back to the dormitory. The trip was much more fun than I thought it would be, but I was glad to be back. We hiked through the jungle to look for monkeys, went on a night hike, and accidentally stumbled across a Buddhist ceremony. I was quickly grabbed by one of the women there and they led me through their prayers. Monica, Vien, and I all participated, and we probably prayed with them for about an hour and a half. The funny part is that the woman who was leading them in prayer answered her cell phone once. Here we are, praying to Buddha and being reflective, when her cell phone rings and she just pulls it out and answers it. Such a strange combination of events!

I unpacked my bags and checked my email before Binh told me to meet him the courtyard with my helmet. When I met him, he went to get his motorbike before telling me that we were going to get his hair cut. He drove us around looking for a place that cut men's hair and we found one a little ways from the dormitory. We walked in and he wanted me to choose his haircut for him. There was a little boy getting his hair cut, and I told Binh that he should ask for the same one. He did, and once his hair was cut we had to wait out the rain for a little bit. It down poured today, which is the first time in awhile that it has done so, but neither of us were prepared as we didn't have a rain coat. We drove through some very flooded streets before reaching the dormitory, quickly changed clothes, and then met again to go get some food.

When we met again I had forgotten my helmet, so I had to borrow one from one of the guards. You would never know it though, as it was a helmet with pink flowers on it. We drove through some more flooded streets until we came to the place he was searching for, which served a fried chicken leg with rice. It was a lot of food but so good! On the way back, we almost got hit by a bus that was switching lanes and I thought for sure we were going to crash as I could feel the back of the motorbike start to fishtail, but Binh somehow kept it under control and we were both kept safe. Back at the dormitory, we got some drinks and joined English club for their gala they hold on Sunday nights. I was basically used as a marketing ploy to get more Vietnamese students to come, as they had me sit outside at a table, but oh well. It was a fun time, although a little long, and afterwards a bunch of us went to the courtyard and I listened to them sing Vietnamese songs and play guitar.

Day 92: Happy Teacher's Day!

Today was Vietnamese Teacher's Day, which is basically a day when students give their teachers gifts. Our first class of the day was Vietnamese, where we spent a lot of time focusing on numbers. No worries though, as I can now say numbers like 1,234,567 in Vietnamese. We gave our professor a card we had all signed, which based by the other gifts I saw is basically nothing. For example, the dormitory was lined with huge flower arrangements and OU had flower arrangements all over the front steps and a huge lunch set up for teachers. In fact, for celebration of Teacher's Day OU students didn't have classes! Many of them still came to school though to give thanks to their teachers and spend the day with them, however.

After Vietnamese, Cate, Alex, Summer, and I headed to L'Uisine, which is basically a Westernized café. I had promised Cate that I would go with her sometime, and today was the day since we had sociology later. Stepping into the café was like stepping back into the United States simply because of the atmosphere. Everything on the menu sounded delicious, and it was hard to choose what I should get to eat. I ended up getting a mushroom and olive stuffed chicken sandwich on a baguette with a side of pumpkin and potato hash. As expected, everything was fantastic. My only complaint is that my sandwich could have used some soy sauce--there is the influence of Vietnam talking!

We spent a few hours at the café and then headed back to campus for a makeup sociology class. We gave our professor another card, but he had also brought cake in to celebrate some of the Loyola student's birthdays. He didn't want the extra cake, so I ended up bringing it back on the bus. I feel like I might have gotten a few more stares than normal because I was holding a cake on Teacher's Day, which could have easily been a gift to a teacher.

After packing for our trip this weekend, we headed to our final DRD. We received two awesome presents, a bamboo spoon made by people at DRD as well as a keychain made by a blind woman and a man with polio. We saw a slideshow of the semester, listened to some great speeches, and ate some more great food. It was strange to begin saying the goodbyes of the semester, and it just proved to me how tough saying goodbye to the university students will be.

I joined English club at 9pm and had the chance to catch up with Yen, which I really needed to do. The topic tonight was final exams, so we just spent two hours talking about exams and how we prepare for them. Afterwards, I went to the canteen with Binh and two of his friend to listen to the guitar club perform. We headed back to our rooms around midnight, but after messaging each other Binh and I decided that neither of us were tired. We met back down in the courtyard, where I introduced him to the wonderful world of Froot Loops and cereal. Surprisingly, he didn't think it was too sweet or sugary. We spent the night the same way we have been, talking about all kinds of things and trying to keep quiet enough so that the guards don't make us leave the courtyard. It wasn't until 3:30am that the guard told us we needed to leave. At that point, however, I can't believe he told us to leave since it was already so far past the 11pm curfew/shut down time. But let's be honest, if it weren't for the guards telling us to leave each night I'm not sure I would have been sleeping at all this week!

Walking around Saigon I've definitely noticed that Christmas decorations are beginning to be put up. It was weird to see fall and Halloween decorations because the leaves weren't changing colors, so it's especially weird to see Christmas decorations out when it is still 85 degrees everyday. It's also kind of sad to see because it just serves as a reminder that the day I leave is getting closer and closer.

I leave tomorrow morning (or maybe I should just say "in 3 hours") for a trip to Ta Kou Nature Preserve for environmental science. There won't be any Wi-Fi, so don't expect another post until Sunday!

Day 91: November 19, 2014

Mornings have a pretty basic routine here of getting up, eating breakfast, and heading to class. For some reason I woke up this morning at 7:30am after not going to bed until 2, so today was very exhausting. We watched a horrible movie in history class, and afterwards I had an hour break before my next class. I bought some banana cake and walked to the Vietnam Center for theology class, where we talked about our upcoming final paper because there are only 2.5 weeks left (let's not talk about the whirlwind of emotions that I descend into even thinking about this). Afterwards, Alex and I met OU Alex at an alleyway known for it's cheap food and tons of options. I ended up getting some rice with a wide variety of meats on top for 15,000d. There was also a woman selling fried bananas, so I walked up to her with a 20,000d note in my hand and pointed to the bananas, expecting to get 4 or 5. Instead, I got about 15 slices of fried banana, which was more than enough to share with Alex and Alex.

We had a makeup environmental science class today, and then it was back to the dorm for the evening. I saw Sa, a girl from English club, while I was waiting for the elevator so I had a chance to catch up with her for a little bit. I hung out with Cate for awhile, doing nothing productive as usual, until Binh asked me if I wanted to go to the arcade at Co-Op with him. Of course I said yes, and we played two rounds of foosball. Each round went to 5 points, and the deal was that the loser had to buy fruit for us to split. I somehow came out victorious, and we spent the last token on a basketball game before going to get some fruit. We split a container of watermelon and a container of pineapple while sitting on the front steps of the dormitory, basically laughing at everything that had just happened.

When we had finished our fruit, a guy from English club came over to talk to us and we sent him on a mission to find us some mango. Unsuccessful, he came back and invited us to come hang out at the street vendor 100 feet away with him and his friend. The four of us just sat on little plastic stools in the dark while eating some delicious street food, laughing and having a good time, while Binh and Tho (the guy from English club) argued about who was the most handsome and tried to teach me some Vietnamese. Around 10:30pm we headed back to the dormitory, and Binh and I played a few games of PIG before switching over to soccer. When the dreaded 11pm hit, we were of course told to leave the courtyard. Instead, however (because we're such bad students), we went to the canteen to get some ice cream. It was a mixture of frozen banana with ice cream and peanuts and was so delicious, and we left the canteen to go eat them in the courtyard. We spent the next two hours talking about all kinds of things (differences between the States and Vietnam, frustrations with people we meet on the street, etc.), spent a ton of time laughing, and even tried to impress each other with some magic tricks. Just like last night, time went by super fast, and suddenly a guard was telling us we needed to go back to our rooms because it was 1am. I am most definitely sleep deprived at this point, because it feels like I've been running off of 5 to 7 hours of sleep a night for the past two weeks, but it's totally worth all of the memories I'm making. If only there was a way to keep me awake for class!

Day 90: November 18, 2014

This morning was a pretty standard day: wake up, eat breakfast, and head to class. After class, Cate and I ate in the canteen at Open University. Although I ordered nui xao trung, I received mi xao trung. Not really a big deal since it's only a difference in noodles, but receiving ramen noodles when you thought you ordered macaroni noodles can send you for a loop.  Nevertheless, it was good and filling. It helps that Cate and I had some good conversations while we were eating, and the hour she had before class went way to fast. Suddenly we looked at the clock and realized that she had to go or she would be late!

I headed back to the dormitory and did some homework, which was basically writing my history paper due tomorrow. After deciding that I had a good start, I bought a mango smoothie. The people that advertise for Axe Body Spray were in the courtyard area, so the entire front of the dorm smelled like Axe. It seems kind of funny that these women dress up in tight, short dresses to sell Axe to a bunch of boys at university, but it must work. I got in the elevator to head back to my room, only to have the other person in the elevator turn to me and ask, in Vietnamese, if I spoke Vietnamese. The confused look on my face was enough an answer, and he soon switched to English to tell me what he asked.

We soon had to leave for DRD, which was kind of awkward tonight. We had to test the students on their English speaking skills and grade them, basically deciding whether or not their English was good enough to go on to the next level. It was really tough, simply because we didn't want to be the ones who decided which students got to move on but also because we've been working with them all semester and didn't realize that this would be the end result. Not only that, but I definitely don't feel like I was qualified enough to determine which students got to move on.

With DRD over I came back to the dorm to finish my history paper and then met up with Binh. We headed to the Co-Op so I could try some new foods, and we first headed to the fruit section. There was a fruit there he wanted me to try, but he couldn't find a ripe one, so he had to ask a woman shopping to help him. It was rather funny, especially when he asked her in Vietnamese but she turned to both of us and began speaking English. None of the fruit was ripe, though, so we decided to buy a bunch of sugary snacks instead. He ended up purchasing some Vietnamese desserts while I decided to buy a bag of Pepperidge Farm cookies so he could try them. We basically spent the night eating sugar, although most Vietnamese desserts have beans in them, and talking about everything from books to music to family.

The desserts were good, although very different from what we would consider dessert. One was a little chalky, one was rice and bean wrapped in banana leaf, one was bean cake, and the other was a husband and wife cake, which was basically a gelatinous rice mixture with bean inside. The cookies were good but not the best, but Binh said that he thought they were good. Eleven o'clock came way to soon, and when the guard came around to tell us to go back to our rooms we decided to see how long he would allow us to stay in the courtyard. Every time the guard stood up I though he was coming over to tell us we had to leave, but he honestly didn't seem to care. The guard soon fell asleep in his chair, and suddenly it was 12:30am. That was when we decided that maybe we should go back to our rooms since neither of us realized that we had spent an extra hour and a half talking. He let me take the extra Vietnamese desserts, I let him take the extra cookies, and we both headed back to our rooms.

Day 89: November 17, 2014

This morning started off as a typical Monday morning, although I got very poor sleep last night. The national music started to be played at 6:45am and I was on my way to class by 7:15am. Today was our first day of Vietnamese with the new teacher, and honestly we did learn quite a bit more today than most of the other days combined. As soon as class was over, though, I headed back to the dormitory to get some homework done.

After officially unpacking and getting my work done for tomorrow, I had plans to meet Binh at 3:30 to head to University Village, a 45 minute drive from the dormitory. He forgot where he had parked his motorbike in the parking garage, so it wasn't until 4pm that we were finally off on our journey. We cruised through the streets of HCMC, going faster than I have ever gone before on a motorbike in this city. We passed through some strange parts of the city, and there were definitely times that I wish I had a mask on to protect my throat from the strange air I was breathing. We eventually made it to University Village, though, and it turns out it is exactly what it sounds like. There are about eight universities that have classes and dormitories in this small area, and everybody that lives there is a student.

Binh gave me a tour of the village and showed me all of the different universities. Turns out that he spent his first year at university here, so he knows quite a bit about it. We got a snack at a street vendor and then headed for ice cream, where we split a chocolate ice cream and a coconut ice cream. Each had rice in it, and the texture of the chocolate ice cream with rice reminded me of Dippin' Dots while the texture of the coconut reminded me of cereal. Afterwards we cruised around the village some more, stopping by the lake and heading down some pretty poorly lit roads. At one point we parked and started to walk, going through the night market and walking until we decided we were hungry. We had sua cua, or crab soup, which was pretty delicious, as well as some sugarcane drink and two types of fruit. One of the fruits we tried literally translates to English as "breast milk" so that was fun.

University Village is so different from the rest of the city because it's only students that live there and everything is so cheap. A meal of rice was no more than 16,000d and our meal tonight was only 7,000d each. After we had toured the whole place a few times we got back on Binh's motorbike and headed back to the dormitory. We went to the canteen to get some drinks and ended up trying a water coconut drink as well as a lemon tea. They were both good, but the water coconut was strange because there were chunks of water coconut you had to eat while drinking it. We ended up just sitting and talking in the courtyard, as well as watching some soccer, until the guards told us to go back to our rooms at 11pm.

Day 88: Return to Hanoi and Return to HCMC

Last night a bus from the hostel took us down the winding roads of Sapa to the train station. Since we had some time to spare, I went to find something to eat and came across a place serving com ga. I received a huge plate of fried rice with shredded chicken, which is exactly what I wanted. I then headed back to the train station to wait with the rest of the Loyola students. While we were waiting, we saw but the same Russian woman who tried to get into our hostel. Small world!

We finally got on the train and were moving by 7:30pm. I again quickly fell asleep to the swaying of the train, as well as the man who walked the hallway shouting "Cold bia! Coca!" Our train pulled into Hanoi at 5:30am, and we quickly got off and went on the hunt for a taxi. There were taxis everywhere, but as soon as we showed them where we wanted to go (the hotel we had stayed at previously) they said they would only take us for 150,000VND. We knew that this was a rip-off because we paid 40,000VND to get to the train station on Friday. The taxi drivers all knew that the hotel was close and so basically refused to take us unless they could make some money off of it. We even tried to get a metered taxi, but they wouldn't take us with the meter running and would only take us for a set price. Frustrated and angry, we walked away from the train station until we found a taxi roaming the streets. Luckily, he took us with no hesitations, turned on the meter, and we paid the correct price.

Back at the hotel we checked into our two rooms and quickly crashed. Since we had to be out by noon, I decided to spend as much time sleeping in them as possible as well as getting my stuff repacked for the flight tonight.

After bumming around the hotel and the surrounding area for a while, I had plans to meet one of Bìnhs friends. She came to pick me up on her motorbike around 2 pm and we headed off to get a snack. The drive was wonderful, although a little cold, but it was great to get to to see more of Hanoi then just where my feet could take me. We ended up in this alleyway where she ordered each of us a yogurt and some breaded pork to share. The conversation that took place was hilarious simply because of the huge language barrier. We ended up speaking through a translation app. We would type in what we were trying to say, push translate, and show the other person. At one point we even had to call Bình to be our translator because of the poor translations that the app was giving us.

Even though conversation was tough, it was sad when she had to take me back to the hotel. She had other plans of showing me more of Hanoi and taking me around a lake but time just didn't allow for it. I made it back to the hotel with about 20 minutes to spare before we had to get on the shuttle to the airport. Going all day without a proper meal, I decided to spend 50,000d on a somewhat disgusting ham and cheese sandwich in the aiport. The sad thing is that it tasted good simply because it was something other than  sugar!

The plane ride was agonizingly slow, as I just wanted to return to HCMC. We did get a meal on the plane, which surprised me. After two hours we finally landed, quickly grabbed our bags, and got in a taxi headed straight to the dorm. I can't even explain how great it is to be back, even with classes tomorrow!

Day 87: November 15, 2014

This morning started with a sesame seed and sugar doughnut, followed by us meeting our tour group at 9:30am. We hopped on a bus and went to a place where it was highly recommended we rent rubber boots, but nobody from Loyola decided to (we would regret this decision later on). We then took off down a road in a bus full of our group, which included 14 people plus our tour guide, and were let off at a place where we then had to walk.

Our tour guide was from the Thai minority here in Vietnam, and it truly is fascinating to look around you and be able to tell that everybody comes from different ethnic groups. We started our descent into the rice terraces of Sapa, for which it is famous, and were followed by members of the Black Hmong tribe. While it was so foggy at the hotel that we could barely see past the front gate, as we continued to climb down the mountain the views became clearer and clearer. We walked through a village of around 2,000 people, took a ton of pictures of the rice terraces, and finally stopped for lunch around noon. We were served ramen noodles with an omelet and stewed tomatoes, all in a broth, with bananas for dessert.

After lunch is when the trekking really began. We actually went in between the rice terraces, which were not only eroded from all of the tourists but also because of the rains yesterday. It was a slippery, muddy mess, and the women from the Hmong group that were following us had to help the stupid Americans who refused to rent boots at the beginning. They held our hands as we walked up and down piles of mud, helped us up as we slipped and fell, and overall laughed with us as we laughed at ourselves. The tour ended with them trying to get us to buy things, which of course I felt was necessary after all of the help they had given us. Was I overcharged? Yes, but they also followed our group all day and kept us from falling off the cliffs.

Having them follow us today was rather interesting. I had gone into this fully expecting a tour of the villages like we had received in Dalat, where we would sit in a local house and talk with them. Instead, we had signed up for a trekking adventure that really didn't consist of interacting with villagers. The women following us were the only chance we had to ask questions, and as we continued to fall in the mud they just kept saying "Too many tourists. Rain yesterday make muddy." Since I am doing my research paper for sociology on the impact of tourism on women's lives, I couldn't help but think how said it is more profitable for these women to follow a group of tourists around for the day and hope at the end of the tour they purchase something then it is for them to follow their traditional lives. Not only that, but the impact of tourism on the land here was highly visible as we slipped around on the mud.

We got back to the hostel around 3:30pm, and we had a few hours to spare before the bus took us back to the train station to get to Hanoi. Hopefully this train ride will go as smoothly as the one to Sapa!

Day 86: Sapa

Last night we managed to board the correct train to Sapa. I stayed in the same cabin with Cate, Tori, and Kaley, and after having a few snacks I passed out to the rocking of the train. I awoke this morning around 6am when our train had finally made it to Cao Lai province. We got off the train and found the bus that would take us to our hostel in Sapa, about a 30 minute drive from the train station. While we had requested the bus for the 10 of us that were travelling, some random Russian woman also got on our bus. We have no idea who she is or what she was doing, but she came along with us for the ride. I slept for the entire bus ride, but awoke at the hostel where there was a dense fog covering all of the sights. The only thing I could figure out is that we were on top of a mountain.

After taking a nap and waking back up around 10am, I decided that maybe I should see what exactly is in Sapa. Turns out the Russian woman tried to get into a few our rooms until we told her that we had made reservations for them and that if she wanted to stay in a hotel she should go find one. I guess she just had no idea what was going on! Otherwise, everything is going great. It's about 65 degrees here, and although I am pretty chilly, it's nothing that a walk around the city can't fix. The fog is still unbelievably bad and I can't see any of the gorgeous views Sapa is known for. No worries, though; Cate, Dan, Tori, and I booked a tour for tomorrow so hopefully we will get to see some rice terraces!

Cate and I ended up walking around the city for most of the day after she got breakfast at a restaraunt. Sapa has quite a few ethnic minority villages in the surrounding highlands, but because Sapa has become such a tourist destination the women now flock to the city to try and sell things. We came across some women from the Black Hmong ethnic group, and we took a picture with them and had the chance to talk with them. We said we would be back later to buy some things, and when we returned they spotted us. I ended up buying two small bags and two metal bracelets for way too much money, but I know that it was the right thing to do. I only wanted the bags, but there were three women selling things and only two of us. Cate bought from one, I bought from one, and the third woman said "What about me?" which is why I bought the bracelets. It also doesn't help that most of the articles I read state that the handicrafts these women sell are really made in China since we are so close to the border right now.

The three women Cate and I ended up buying goods from. They are apart of the Black Hmong ethnic group.

Cate and I walked through the market and went to a few shops before getting some food and looking for a place to warm up. It's very interesting walking around a city and not knowing what language people speak. Like I said before, each ethnic minority has its own language, so my Vietnamese isn't necessarily very useful here. English is, however, and most of the people I've seen so far are pretty fluent.

I spent the afternoon in the hostel trying to get warmed up and using the internet before going back out to meet up with Dan and Cate. We literally had no idea what to do because it was cold and so densely foggy that you couldn't see anything. We ended up meeting up with Tori and going to get supper at the same place where Cate had breakfast this morning. I had a set Vietnamese menu and got pumpkin soup, fried spring rolls, stir-fried chicken with corn and mushrooms, steamed rice, and yogurt and fruit. It also came with a free glass of hot spiced wine, which was good simply because it warmed me up. We spent two hours in the restaurant because we knew we would freeze once we stepped outside, but we eventually had to come back to the hostel. The said thing is that it really isn't that cold here compared to what it would be in the United States. As Tori said, though, when we get back we will probably be experiencing a 70 degree or more difference since it is about 90 degrees in Saigon and we can expect it to be 20 degrees or less in the States.

Although I am having a lot of fun seeing northern and central Vietnam, I honestly can't wait to return to HCMC. It's warm, there is street food everywhere, and I have friends there! I actually got a message this morning from one of them saying how everybody at English club missed me at their last meeting and they hope I return soon, so I am looking forward to my return!

And because I've been really bad at uploading pictures lately, here is a gallery of the past couple of days.

Lang Co fishing village.

Just a fisherman out and about.

Part of the citadel at Hue. Also the largest flag I have ever seen.

Sunset over the mountains that separate Vietnam from Laos.

Cate and me just chilling at an emperor's tomb in Hue.

Inside one of the tombs. The emperor is buried about 9meters below.

Kayaking in Halong Bay!

The amazing rocks of Halong Bay.

The "kissing cocks" rock.

Inside the cave we got to visit at Halong Bay.