Day 71: October 30, 2014

This morning started at 5:30am since I had plans to meet some members of English club at 6am to play da cau. We started playing around 6:15, and none of us were very god this morning. Everybody was mentioning how tired they are and we couldn't seem to keep the shuttlecock going for very long. We quit around 6:45, and then Binh took two of us to the place where he always gets breakfast. As we were walking there, he kept making comments about all of the people that were staring at me. I guess it's been happening so much that I haven't even been noticing anymore! Even at breakfast, where we had broken rice with pork and a fried egg (and I was able to try pork skin), he thought it was so funny that the little boy at the end of the table was eating his breakfast while looking at me. Thankfully, I don't think it made either of the people I was with uncomfortable, as Binh asked me to walk behind him so that when people were staring at me he could pretend they were staring at him because he is so handsome.

When we had finished breakfast, we went to get warm soy milk from a street vendor, which was kind of good. We came back to the dormitory and went our separate ways since they still have class today. I talked to Thao about the details for this weekend, and then I went back to bed.

After taking a much needed nap, I decided to spend the day in the city. I packed my bag and set out to find a xe om to take me to Ben Thanh Market. I ended up buying three t-shirts for 360,000d, and when I met up with Alex Vu later he told me that I had (of course) overpaid. Oh well.

While I was waiting for Alex to meet me at Ben Thanh, this guy next to me started talking to me. He is from the Philippines and was also waiting for his friends. Alex showed up a few minutes later, and we walked to Saigon Square where I looked but didn't buy anything. We were starting to get hungry, so Alex took me to this alleyway that is very popular among the locals. We stopped at the Vincom Center, which is basically an American mall aka too expensive. We finally made it to the alleyway where I had nui xao trung (fried noodles with egg) and a lemon tea. When they first told me the tea was 8,000d, I was shocked. But after tasting it I was totally fine with paying that much!

With lunch finished, Alex wanted to get on a bus that took us through District 1. At the final spot, we got off, then walked back to a street vendor we had passed who was selling fried dough with sesame seeds. He then got this brilliant idea of taking me to a park where university students hang out to practice their English. We were sitting on a bench, and I could tell he was surprised that nobody was coming over to talk to us. I explained to him that it was probably because he was there, so he slowly scooted farther and farther away from me. A few people passed by and smiled, and finally a girl came and asked if she could talk to me. As soon as she sat down, and I'm not kidding, there were ten people around us. They asked the basic questions (name, major, country, place of study) and honestly just wanted to practice with a native speaker. At one point, there was probably close to 20 people standing around me. At 6pm, I finally said I had to go, and just like that they all dispersed, on their way to look for the next person to talk to.

I spent a few hours packing for my trip this weekend as well as doing some homework before going to circle talk at 9pm. This week's topic was best friends, and we spent about an hour discussing our best friends and the things we like to do with them. After we had said enough about our friends, I joined a small group and we talked about different kinds of food here in Vietnam and what I should try versus what I've already tried. When circle talk had ended (around 11pm), I went to the canteen to listen to the guitar club with some members of English club.

Tomorrow my journey to Thao's hometown begins and I will be gone until Monday, so no more posts until then!

Day 70: October 29, 2014

History class this morning was finally a little more interesting because we are now beginning to learn about the Vietnam War instead of past dynasties and French colonization. After class, I grabbed some papaya and walked to the Vietnam Center for theology. Along the way, I stopped at a bookstore and bought a Vietnamese cookbook. I showed Julio when I got to class, and he said that I picked out a good one; he has given that one as a gift in the past. There were several to choose from, but I wanted one that had good pictures as well as some of my favorite foods I've had so far.

After class, we took the bus back to the dormitory. While we were waiting, we began to play da cau because I had the shuttlecock with me. The guys on their motorbikes were laughing at us because we were absolutely so horrible. We were excited to get two hits in a row! Sophie asked them if they would join us, and one of them did. We improved a little with him our circle, but we're still not very good.

The afternoon was basically wasted. I got bored so headed to the streets for a snack. I ended up getting this thing kind of like a waffle but made with coconut milk. I came back to the room, watched some horrible American television, and ate it. Around 7pm I decided to go find some real food to eat, and I was planning on going to the bot chien place. Instead, I saw Thinh, whose basketball practice had just been cancelled. He asked me to wait for him and said that we could go somewhere to eat together. When he came back, we headed down to the garage where all of the students keep their motorbikes. It was crazy! We're talking 2,500 motorbikes and bicycles, basically one for each student that lives in the dorm. It took Thing a little while to find his, but when he did we hopped on and drove off through the rain.

We ended up at a place that served banh canh, which is a very thick rice noodle in a broth served with chicken, shrimp, crab, pork, blood cubes, and a quail egg. It looked somewhat like this. It wasn't bad, but I had a tough time convincing myself to eat the noodles. The chicken was on the bone with a lot of fat, so we ended up having a conversation about how food is prepared in the United States. It was not a bad meal at all, and in fact was nice to have something different and new, but it is not something that I would ever be hungry for.

Finished with our meal, we went to get bubble tea. I had told Thinh that I had had it before and wasn't impressed, but he said that you had to know the right places to go. And was he right! I ended up getting  a peach bubble tea, and it was so much better than the one I had had before. We got them to go, and drank them in the courtyard as we talked.

Around 9:30 I headed up to my room, and guess who was in the lounge? English club! I sat with them for awhile and helped prepare some more Halloween decorations. Yen came in at one point to tell me about a conference being held at her campus about water resources in the Mekong. She is going to see if there is any way for me to attend, and I'm pretty excited about it.

While we working on decorations, we talked a lot about what we want our jobs to be in the future. It's kind of funny--they don't understand what I mean when I say "I don't know". Since they all study engineering, their goal is to be engineers. They also assume that since I study environmental science, my goal is to be a scientist. It was tough to explain to them that there are so many other options I have.

I brought them some Starbursts, and unlike the other Vietnamese that have tried it, they liked them. Maybe these students only talk to us because they want to practice their English, but it is so easy to have conversations with them and get to know them. Much easier, in fact, than making friends in the states. But that probably has a lot more to do with mindset than anything. They keep asking me why I can't be here to celebrate Halloween with them, and it's even crazier to think that out of the next four weeks I'll only have two weeks to actually spend with them. The semester is going much too fast!

Day 69: October 28, 2014

What a day today has been! We had a meeting at 9:30 to learn that we had a new Vietnamese teacher and class was followed soon afterwards. I had lunch with Alex, Brian, Poem, and OU Alex at a street vendor, where I had rice with fried fish. First time ever having fried fish from a street vendor and it really wasn't that bad.

I took the bus back to the dormitory, and that is where the events for the day really begin. On the way back, our bus stopped on the side of the road. Four gentlemen got on, and I watched as the people around me began to take out their tickets. Not knowing what was going on, I did the same. A guy came over, looked at my ticket, and simply nodded before getting off the bus. I'm pretty sure that they were making sure everyone had paid for a ticket, but it was strange simply because I had never experienced anything like that before.

I got off the bus and began to walk back to the dormitory when I passed through a thick cloud of smoke. Well not smoke, because it burned as I breathed it in. As I walked through it, it was hard to see anything in front of me, but I did notice all of the Vietnamese covering their faces so as not to breathe it in. I looked down the street where it was coming from, and all I could see was a group of motorbikes several meters down the road and some cops. I have absolutely no idea what was going on, but I wonder if there was an accident or something.

I spent the afternoon doing some homework before heading to my new study spot of the courtyard, where I do most of the readings. Soccer practice began, and soon Yen found me. I've found that by sitting in the courtyard I am more likely to see people I recognize, which can be both a good and bad thing. Today it was a good thing, because I don't see Yen that often so it's always nice to talk to her. When she headed back to her room, I grabbed my laundry and then headed to DRD. Tonight's topic was relationships, and we had some very interesting conversations in our group about bad relationships, love, and if opposites attract.

Back at the dorm, I was headed to fill up my water bottle when I met someone from English club in the elevator. He asked me if I was coming to watch them dance, and I said I had no idea what he was talking about but would stop by. It turns out that some members of English club are learning a traditional Cambodian dance for their Halloween event on Saturday. I watched them, made some new friends, laughed with them, and even tried to do it when I was asked to. Let's just say that I'm not a good dancer. Plus, they were giving the instructions in Vietnamese so I had absolutely no idea what was going on.

While they were taking a break from dancing, I had the chance to talk with them. This quickly turned into a photo session with Ashley, with them trying to make themselves appear taller than me. I told them that I had bought the piece of equipment needed to play da cau, and Binh immediately wanted to make plans to play. His time of choice? Six. I asked whether am or pm, and it turns out that it will be 6am. So I will be waking up very early Thursday to play a game with some members of English club. Binh said that if I want to live like the Vietnamese I have to do it, and I guess it won't kill me to do it. Maybe they can show me a good place to get breakfast afterwards.

Day 68: August 27, 2014

It's Monday, and if you've been paying attention, you know what that means: being awoken by music being played from outside. Not so bad, really, considering that I now use it to determine whether or not I'm behind schedule. Anyway, I headed to Vietnamese class this morning and was back at the dorm by 11am, so no room to complain.

Back at the dorm, I had to print off my poster for environmental science. Cate decided to come with me, and we walked to the University of Technology's campus because I knew that there was a print shop nearby. I now understand why the students here take the bus to class. When you're walking in this heat, it doesn't take very long to get worn out! We made it, though, and with the help of a Vietnamese I was able to print out my poster, in color and the correct size. For some details, this print shop is just a store on the side of the road with a few computers and multiple printers. You walk in, open your document on the computer, and it comes out of the printer. Really quite amazing, and just further proof that you can find literally anything on the side of the streets here. I was actually ready to walk back, but Cate said no way. I told her we could take a cab, but she had to pay for it. Sorry Cate!

After we made it back, I headed out to the courtyard to do some homework. There was no soccer games going on, and it was lunchtime, so I was expecting to actually get some work done. But let's be honest, that didn't happen. I met some kids from English club on the way down in the elevator, and thankfully they left for lunch so I could sit on the benches and do my readings. I stick out here, though, and soon another student from English club was sitting next to me, offering some fruit. It was super nice, and I don't mind talking to them (in fact, I absolutely love it and I would be upset if I wasn't talking to them) but after a few minutes I just really needed to do my work. He left soon enough, and I was able to get some work done before it began to rain.

I spent a few hours with Cate, during which she made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and also headed to Co-Op to buy the thing you kick around for the game I played yesterday (I want to get good at it and be able to play with the Vietnamese!). Then it was off to environmental science class to present our posters. Cate decided to come with to see all of our projects, and we began the trek to the bus stop in the rain. Just as we approached the bus stop, we noticed that the bus we wanted was there. We began to run towards it, and we were pretty close to making it, when it began to take off. Thankfully, though, the driver saw us and stopped and waited for us. We got on the bus soaking wet, a little out of breath, and couldn't help but laugh at all that had just happened. Neither could the Vietnamese, and the bus was full of the sounds of their laughter as we tried to find a seat.

Most of the OU partners came to hear our presentations, which was actually pretty amazing of them. Afterwards, Summer and I went with them to get supper from a beef hotpot place. It was an absolute blast, and we decided to go get sweet soup after. We went to the same place Thao took me last week, and the guy there recognized us and waved. With so many of us, we ordered a tray this time so I was able to try one of everything. When we were all finished eating, Thao gave me a ride back to the dormitory.

Hotpot!

And of course sweet soup is for dessert.

We ordered a tray of sweet soup, aka one of everything.

And this would be after we demolished it. Sixteen sweet soups, eight people.

As I was headed to my room, I noticed there were some people in the community lounge. I poked my head in, and it was the English club working on their Halloween decorations. I decided to help again, and I spent a few hours with them. My relationship with English club is very hilarious, and Cate calls me the Queen of the English Club. The Vietnamese tonight even tried to use me as a way to advertise for more people to come help, and they talked about posting to Facebook that "a beautiful, long-legged American girl" was present. I honestly don't mind, simply because I'm getting a lot better at recognizing them around the dorm and it makes this place seem much more like a campus, even though I only live here. It's crazy to think that just as these friendships are starting to form they will soon end, so I try not to think about that too much. Thankfully, though, I know that I can see these people at least once a week when I head to their English club meetings. There's just something so great about recognizing some of the people you live with!

Day 67: October 26, 2014

This morning I woke up on the concrete floor of the tent I was sleeping in at 6:30. Unable to go back to sleep, I headed out to the beach and spent the next two hours sleeping in a chair. After waking up again at 8am, I packed my stuff and headed to the bus. The drive back was spent sleeping, and even fresh pancakes at the Happy House (aka rest stop) didn't sound appetizing.

Eventually, though, we made it back to the dorm, as we always do. I finished my environmental science poster before I decided to head outside to do some homework readings. There were soccer matches going on, and my plan was to read and watch soccer as a nice break. A girl from English club came over to talk to me, and then another girl did, which wasn't really a big deal considering that the homework isn't due tomorrow. Then a guy from English club, whose Vietnamese name (Binh)translates as "bottle", came over and started talking. Let's just say that no homework was done for the next four hours. Instead, we watched four soccer games and got to know each other. When we decided we had enough of soccer, he introduced me to the game da cau, which is only played in China, Vietnam, and Laos. When you're playing non-competitively, you stand in a circle and kick one of these to each other. It's funny, because there were two guys playing when I asked him about it. He then told me that we should play, so we just walked over and joined them playing. Soon some other people came over and what started out as two people playing turned into six. At one time during this entire afternoon deal, I was even told that I needed to come to Vietnam to marry a Vietnamese husband and have children with him so I could help increase the height of their country.

I met Yen for supper at six, and since neither of us were very hungry we headed to the bot chien stall to have fried rice. It was my first time getting that from the stall but it was very good with greens, beef, soy sauce, and chili sauce on top. Afterwards, I asked her to walk around to the street vendors with me so she could explain what some of the food was that I wasn't sure about.

At 7:30 I went to a meeting that Binh had invited me to where the students practice their English. There weren't many people there and I had in fact met most of them before, but it was a great time. The theme was animals, and we had to make a skit where the main character was an animal. Our team came up with a boy cat falls in love with a female lion, but the lion wants nothing to do with the cat because they're so different. It might sound silly, but it definitely reminded me of some things I've heard here about village vs. city people. When the meeting was over, Binh invited me to go to the canteen with him where the guitar club was playing. I walked in and was immediately greeted by people saying "Hey Ashley!". Although the songs were in Vietnamese, it was still fun to listen to some very talented students. After about half an hour I had to call it a night so that I could Skype with my parents and finish some homework.

Day 65: Cu Chi Tunnels

This morning a bus picked us up at 8:30am outside of the dorm to take us to the Cu Chi Tunnels. We travelled with six of the OU Partners to Cu Chi, which was about an hour and a half drive. Along the way, we passed some spots of HCMC that I've never seen before as well as a rubber farm. Although we only drove past it, it was interesting to see the marks in the trees where the rubber comes out of.

Our first stop for the day was at a restaurant where we were stopping to talk about what our impressions are of the Vietnam War. We all ordered a drink, and I had a pineapple smoothie. In our group, our conversation started out as family members we had in the war and then slowly turned into us questioning the OU partners about their thoughts. For example, their history text books are written to promote Communism and state that United States invaded Vietnam in order to take over the country. Vietnamese who have travelled abroad, however, are now worried that the generation in university is becoming brainwashed and are beginning to publish books from the United States' perspective. It was only through their own research that our partners were able to find out that the United States came to Vietnam in an attempt to stop the spread of Communism. As usual, it was interesting to get the other perspective on something that we've learned about in classes before.

When our conversation was over, we got back on the bus to head to the tunnels. We had a tour guide with us, and he was able to explain all kinds of things to us that I otherwise would not have learned about. There were bomb craters all over the place left from the war, as well as secret entrances to the tunnels. We also saw all kinds of traps that were used as well as examples of how they build land mines.

The tunnels were the main attraction at 5-10 meters below the ground and were built as small as possible because they were faster to build and ensured greater secrecy from the Americans. We had the chance to crawl through the tunnels and it was quite the experience. They were very small and I actually found it easier to crawl than I did to walk hunched over. While the tunnel we went through had light, during the war they did not, and so the Vietnamese would have to carry lanterns with them. The tunnels always exited to the river so that the Vietnamese could flee into the jungle if necessary. Also, the tunnels were never built in a straight line so that if a plane dropped a bomb only part of the tunnel would be ruined.

After crawling through the hot tunnel, we were able to get a snack of yams with crushed up peanuts and sugar. Then it was back to the place where we had talked about the war for lunch, which was a set menu. It was really good, and we had fried spring rolls, banana flower and chicken salad, fried fish, kebabs, and rice. Finally, it was time to come back to the dormitory for the day.

Supper tonight consisted of corn and a baguette with some wonderful peanut butter and jelly provided by Cate. On the way back to my room, I noticed that the community lounge was full of people, so I popped my head in. Turns out that the English Club was making Halloween decorations and asked me if I wanted to join them. Of course I said yes, and I spent the next four hours getting to know the people I met last night better. I helped make a mummy, paint masks, and was put in charge of creating a pumpkin out of wire because I was the only one who had seen a pumpkin in real life before. While I had an idea on how to make it, it was actually the other students who made it happen thanks to their engineering minds. It was great to spend some more time with the students that live in the dorm, but also saddening to know that as I continue to meet new people I have less and less time to spend with them.

Tomorrow we are going on a camping trip with our OU partners, so don't expect a blog post! I will blog again on Sunday.

Day 64: October 23, 2014

This morning started off with Vietnamese class, where after learning a short dialogue we asked if we could learn our colors. We also had Vietnamese assistants for the first time in quite a few weeks; their final exams are finally over! It's nice to be able to practice Vietnamese in class with actual speakers rather than each other.

After class I headed to the canteen to finish writing my history paper, which took me very little time to write. I guess it's the thought of having to write a paper here that makes me put it off until the day it's due. Alex, Tori, and I had lunch with partner student Alex in the canteen. Tori and I each just pointed to some meat dish to have with rice, expecting that it was either pork or beef. When we sat down to eat it, though, we realized that we had beef (?) and shrimp with rice. Not my favorite meal, although the banana was good. There's just something about eating shelled shrimp that throws me off. Having a not so great lunch, we decided to head to the Family Mart across the street to get some ice cream. Thankfully, our 10,000d ice cream was exactly what we were expecting.

Alex and I took the bus back to the dormitory and did some homework. I submitted my history paper, finished my final poster for environmental science, and even got my schedule figured out for next semester. What a productive afternoon! Soon it was time to head to DRD for service learning, which went a little slower than usual. Afterwards, though, Wilson, Summer, and I ate at a restaurant near DRD. We had beef hotpot as well as beef on the grill. The beef on the grill came out first, and we got a charcoal grill with a curved plate on top, a bowl of oil, and a plate of raw meat. Thankfully, the workers helped us figure out what we were supposed to do. They took the oil, spread it on the grill, dumped the excess off, and then began to lay the beef on top. It also came with eggplant and okra, and it was so...refreshing...to have something that contained neither rice nor noodles. We took turns eating the beef and vegetables, and we each had our own horseradish-y and chili pepper sauce to dip our food into.

When we had finished that, they brought out our hotpot. This was a gas burner with a big metal pot on top that contained a broth, pork balls, what may have been cow skin, tofu, and some vegetables. We also received another plate of noodles and a plate of raw beef. Once the broth began to heat up, we added the noodles until it was boiling. Then, we added the beef and waited for it to cook. Once we decided everything was cooked, we ladled ourselves small bowls. The broth was my favorite part, and it reminded me of soup more than anything else.

I got back to the dorm around 9:15, right in time for English Club at the dormitory. Tonight's activity was careers, and I participated in some of the games as well as circle talk. We were only supposed to be in groups of five, but suddenly my group contained about 10 people. I saw some of the Bach Khoa partners, which was really nice considering we don't do much with them anymore, but I also met all kinds of new people. Not surprisingly, they were all interested in what I had to say and were impressed by my Vietnamese. Neither I nor anybody else was ready to call it a night when the lights shut off at 11, signaling that we all needed to go to our rooms.

One thing I want to mention that I forgot to write about yesterday. When I was eating with Thao, I asked her how often she has rice and/or noodles because lately I've been feeling like there is a food group I've been missing out on. Her response? Everyday. I then asked her what she eats when she is sick of both of those options, to which she replied banh mi. I explained to her that I felt like I was doing something wrong by having rice and/or noodles everyday. She told me that in Vietnam you change the dish up depending on what type of meat you put on it. Thao also said there is a saying in Vietnam that explains how people eat rice and noodles. It basically compares a man's wife to rice and his lover to pho, saying that the man loves his wife but one day may decide he needs something else. She said that people eat rice everyday until they get sick of it and decide to eat noodles, which they then eat until they get sick of that.

Day 63: October 22, 2014

Today started off just like any other day; I woke up and headed to history class, in which we watched a movie. Usually on Wednesdays, I take a taxi to get to my next class, but today I decided to walk. When everybody else heard I was walking to class, they all decided to join me. Instead of having lunch, we all grabbed some fruit for our half-hour journey. I got fresh, delicious, and sweet pineapple for 10,000d as well as a banana cake for 10,000d. The banana cake reminded me of thick banana pudding in both texture and taste, and it was so good I'll probably have to get it again.

After all of our classes were done for the day, it was time to come back to the dormitory. We've wanted to take bus 50 back for a few weeks now, but usually after class it is raining. Not today! We got some last minute directions from Vien before heading out. Thankfully, the bus stop is neither far away nor hard to find, so I will definitely be taking it back on Wednesdays instead of a taxi. It's different from bus 6 in that you pay the driver, but we were able to get everything figured out okay. After about 30 minutes, we had arrived at the Co-Op Mart, where the bus stop was.

I spent the afternoon trying to get myself to work on the history paper due tomorrow. I basically finished taking notes and will write the paper tomorrow. A man also came to drop off mail today, and I had 4 letters, all in orange envelopes waiting for me. I think both the guy and I were surprised at how much mail I received!

I had plans to meet with Thao for supper at 7pm. She can't believe that I don't like noodles, so she said she was going to take me to a noodle place. I had explained to her earlier that there is just something about long, thin noodles that I can't stand, but she basically told me I needed to get over it. So tonight, kind of nervous about where she was taking me, I hopped on the back of her motorbike. She took me to District 3 and we pulled up to a little street restaurant where there were lots of people eating. The only dish they served was "mi xao bo", or ramen noodles with beef. Thankfully, she had understood when I said I especially couldn't stand the rice noodles. Thao ordered one mi xao bo trung (ramen noodles with beef and egg) for us to share. If I'm being completely honest, it wasn't bad. But there is no way I could have finished the entire thing by myself. It was huge! I still prefer the macaroni style noodles, but at least I now know of other options.

After we finished eating we hopped back on her motorbike and she drove down some side streets until we came to an alleyway. In this alleyway was the most crowded sweet soup place I have ever seen. On the far left were the people dishing out the sweet soup with 12 big metal pans between them. In the center were probably about 15-20 little plastic tables, each with two to four people crowded around them. The far right had a woman who was washing dishes as fast as she could so that they could be reused. We pulled up, and I'm not even exaggerating, all of the customers turned to stare at me and Thao. We were directed to a table where Thao ordered five, yes FIVE, different sweet soups. In a matter of seconds we had our dessert, which included corn sweet soup, potato sweet soup, two kinds of bean sweet soup (this one and this one), and sticky rice. Each came in a little bowl like you see used at tea parties and were served warm. Not surprisingly, the corn was my favorite, followed by the potato. I realize that this vegetable dessert combination sounds rather disgusting, but it is so unbelievably sweet. It was hard for the two of us to finish five dishes, but all around us were people ordering "trays", or one of everything. Thao and I watched these two boys order a tray, which includes around 12 different desserts, and only eat about three each before getting the rest to go.

After everything was paid for (each sweet soup was only 4,000d) Thao took me back to the dormitory and we called it a night. I had planned on going to the English Club meeting but they were not where they were last time I went, so instead I went back to my room to finish some homework.

Day 62: October 21, 2014

Today started with sociology class, in which we had a quiz that none of us had really prepared for. Let's just say that we're all glad it's only worth 5% of our grade. It's funny, because this quiz is the only thing we have here that is similar to how classes would be in the United States, yet none of us really did much preparing for it.

After class, I was headed to the post office and partner student Alex came with me. When we got back to Open, I hopped on the bus to come back to the dormitory. My plan was to eat lunch at one of the many street vendors near the bus stop. I decided yesterday that I'm relying too much on rice and need to be more adventurous with the foods I get from street vendors. When I got off the bus, though, I realized how daunting it is to order something and have no idea what you are ordering. The reason I order rice so often is because I know the word for it, so I know what to expect and can point to what I want on it. You can't do that with all of the foods here.

I ended up eating at the bot chien place, and when I walked to the stand the woman who works there asked "bot chien bo trung?" I decided that I wanted to try something else from them today, so I shook my head no and instead ordered "nui xao trung", or fried noodles with egg. I think I threw her for a surprise, and when she asked if I wanted beef (bo) I said no. Instead, she ended up giving me two eggs. The noodles were macaroni style, aka just about the only kind I will eat, and they were fried with some oil on her skillet. She cracked two eggs with them before adding some green vegetables, and served them to me with soy and chili sauce as well as some ground up chili powders. It was very good, and I'm glad to know that I can go to the same stand but get different things.

Because I've decided that I need to me more adventurous in my street food eating, however, I came back to the dormitory and Googled different types of foods I could get from street vendors. I ended up making a list of things that I would either be willing to try or things that sounded good, and I play on carrying it with me. That way, if I see a vendor selling something that I don't recognize, I can see if it's on my list and then order it.

Something I had noticed around Vietnam but didn't fully understand until our trip to Dalat: men will walk around the streets with their shirts up, showing their stomachs. While we were on our tour with Mr. Rot, his cousin explained to us that Vietnamese men want to gain weight but that it is very hard for them to do so. Therefore, those with more weight and bigger stomachs lift up their shirts to show that they are able to gain weight. I thought these men were just hot and trying to cool off, but it makes much more sense now considering the fact that it is only men with bigger stomachs that typically have their shirts up.

After relaxing and not getting a lot of homework done (story of my life in Vietnam) it was time for DRD. The activity tonight was rather hard, but afterwards all of the guys sang a song to everyone in the room. Yesterday was Women's Day here in Vietnam, and so they gave us a gift of them singing. They also made paper flowers for everyone as well as photo frames. In Vietnam, men are not allowed to help around the house except on Women's Day. We decided that it is kind of like a Mother's Day but it happens twice a year, once in October and once in March.

When I came back to the dormitory, I decided that I should try and find something to eat. I know that I should break my habit of eating corn a little bit, so I wandered from street vendor to street vendor. I came across one that had little snacks packaged up and decided that I would try some. I ended up getting these things that look like a Ritz cracker but do not taste like one and they have sugar on top. I also decided to get a sandwich from the vendor and basically ordered a mystery meat banh mi, although I think it might have been pork. It was meat on a stick, and when I pointed to it they pulled out a loaf of bread, cut it off the stick, and put it on the sandwich along with pickled vegetables, soy sauce, and chili sauce. It wasn't bad but reminded me of school lunches when you wonder what exactly you're eating. I also decided to get a strawberry smoothie tonight, and it's the first one I've had in awhile. I realized then that I was basically just procrastinating writing a paper, so I headed back to my room to get some homework actually accomplished.

Day 61: Back from Dalat

We arrived back in HCMC this morning at 3:30. After getting off the bus we immediately took a cab back to the dormitory and went back to sleep. Here are some highlights from the trip:

• going on an 11-hour motorbike tour of Dalat (seriously my favorite part about the whole trip!)
• getting to visit a village where no tourists go, thanks to our tour
• trying cricket
• being in the fresh mountain air
• having our tour guide order us a bunch of food at a local restaurant, which included frog, snake, and dog
• going to a karaoke bar with our tour guide
• going canyoning, which consisted of rappelling down waterfalls and sliding down rapids
• deciding that Dalat is my favorite place we have visited so far

Post by Viet Challenge.

 

Post by Viet Challenge.

The wonderful view from our hotel room.

The city was surrounded by mountains!

View from the a mountainside.

Cricket farm pen, where the only thing keeping the crickets from getting out is the slippery tile at the top.

Crickets!



A plate of fried crickets, which had the consistency of sunflower seeds.

Mr. Rot, our hilarious tour guide.

A stand in the market that sells votives, or offerings for the dead. You can buy anything that you think your ancestors might need, including clothes, cars, phones, food, and USD.

A silk farm, which was very different from the (tourist) one we visited in Cambodia.

Elephant Waterfall

Mr. Rot explaining how coffee farming works.

After waking up for the day, I unpacked and did some homework. I decided that I really wasn't in the mood to sit at a street vendor and eat lunch, so I went to Co-Op and bought a pre-made meal. Usually I avoid these because a.) they need to be warmed up and b.) they're more expensive than street food but today I decided to try it. I ended up buying a small amount of sticky rice with pork (or maybe it was chicken) for 15,000d. The amount of food I got was probably 1/3 of the amount I would have gotten from a street vendor for only 5,000d cheaper.

I did some more homework, and then it was time for class. I came back from class and went with Kaley and Sophie to a vegetarian restaurant to get supper. We got there, I asked for a rice dish, and was told that they didn't have any left. There were only two things you could order, both of which had noodles. I decided to try my luck at the dormitory. When I got to the dormitory, I walked down the alleyway where the bot chien place is. The man who owns the stall was cleaning up, waved at me, and said hello. Nothing in the alleyway was open, so I went to the corn lady and had some corn.

It's crazy what a change in climate and elevation can do to your body. Besides being ridiculously sore from canyoning yesterday, my throat hurts and one of my ears feels it needs to pop. My face is also sunburnt from being outside all weekend. Hopefully in a few days I'll feel back to normal!

Day 57: October 16, 2014

This morning I almost didn't go to class. I always set two alarms, 15 minutes apart from each other. My first alarm went off at 6:30am, so I turned it off and went back to sleep. My second alarm never went off, though. I somehow woke up at 7am to realize that I had to get ready and go to class! Turns out that I set my alarm for 6:45PM. Close call, but I made it to Vietnamese. Our professor was asking us about our upcoming trips, and so we told him about how everybody (except for me) is going to Thailand. I assumed that he would declare class cancelled, but instead he said that we could still have class. In fact, he wants to go get breakfast for class. For two classes. Not exactly sure how I feel about this, but we'll see as it gets closer.

Our Vietnamese professor was also drinking this very delicious looking drink today in class, so I asked him what it was. Turns out it was just orange juice, and he told me how to order it. So after class I went down to the street vendor in the alley and said the magic Vietnamese words for orange juice, which I already forgot. The vendor understood me, though, and he proceeded to take some very dark green oranges and cut them. They looked unripe from the outside, but the inside was a brilliant orange color. He squeezed two oranges into a glass and put some sugar and ice in it before I paid him 10,000d. It was SO GOOD. It was much sweeter than orange juice you buy and tasted like clementines. I was so impressed that I am considering getting it more often now.

After I had my orange juice, I got back on the bus to come to the dormitory where I tried to get as much done as possible before we leave for this weekend. I did some homework, caught up on some other stuff, and looked for jobs and internships for the spring. It started to rain, which is nothing new, but today was the latest it has ever started to rain. It used to rain around 11 or noon but today it didn't rain until about 3:30. Maybe the rainy season really is almost over!

When I had quite a bit of homework accomplished, I decided that I should probably go eat before we headed to service learning. Bot chien sounded good, so I put on my rain coat and headed out. I'm not sure if the guy remembered me from two weeks ago or not, but I got the exact same thing I had last time. He didn't even motion to ask if I wanted chili sauce with my soy sauce! When I first arrived I was the only one there, but soon the place was filling up. Just as I left at 5:15 all of the seats were taken.

The last event for the night was DRD, where we had to come up with a skit to present in everybody else with our groups. I hate things like this, and none of the people I was working with were really into it either, so ours was pretty bad. Some other groups came up with some funny stuff, though, and the whole room was laughing pretty hard. After DRD, it was back to the dormitory to finish packing for our trip this weekend. We leave for Dalat tonight at 11pm and will return very early Monday morning, so no more blog posts until then.

Day 56: Half Way Point

Today was just a very typical day and not a whole lot to mention. I woke up and went to history class and then afterwards had lunch in the canteen at Open University, where I had macaroni noodles and beef. I ate with Alex, and we both agreed that we thought this was a very Westernized Asian meal. Basically we meant that if we had this at home it would probably classify as Asian food. Having it reminded me of home just a little bit, but maybe that's because of all the sodium I could taste.

After lunch Alex and I decided to walk to the Vietnam Center since we had a whole bunch of time on our hands. It only took us half an hour but we were pretty sweaty when we arrived. It's more fun and (obviously) cheaper than a taxi, and in all honesty I would be up for it again. Our plan after class was to take bus 50 back to the dormitory, but because it was raining we decided just to take a cab.

I got back to the dormitory and did some homework before having a Loyola-paid for supper with our OU partners. Thao picked me up on her motorbike and we went too the restaurant, only to arrive and realize that we were the only ones there. Turns out that there is the exact same address in two places in this crazy city, and we just happened to arrive at the wrong one. So we got back on her taxi and headed to the other place, where we were greeted by basically everyone else. The place we ate was the same place we ate at after going to the orphanage one day so I knew what to expect for food. We had noodles with crab, shrimp with crab, soft shell crab, and fried spring rolls. I enjoy fried spring rolls way too much, and I probably had close to 6 tonight. After hanging out with everyone else for awhile more I ended up back at the dormitory for the night.

The crazy thing about today is that it marks the half-way point of the semester, which is so hard to believe! It feels like I just got here but also like I've been here forever. There's so much I've already done but so much more I have yet to do, and our excursions haven't really begun yet. I've been thinking a lot about how I would explain Vietnam to people back home, and I've decided that there's really no way to explain it. It's the things you do and the experiences you see that make Vietnam an experience. I've started to create a list of these things and this is what I have so far. Vietnam is...

• when it downpours and the streets become flooded and you end up walking through calf deep water.
• having local people shout "hello" to you or say "motorbike?"
• meeting Vietnamese at street vendors and being able to see their excitement when you talk to them.
• going to English clubs to meet people and share your experiences with them.
• venturing outside to eat food and pointing at what somebody else is having to signal that you also want it.
• the moment when you can successfully order a meal without pointing.
• sticking out like a sore thumb and having people compare their height to you.
• trash on the sidewalks and traffic jams but also cheap food and some of the nicest people you will meet.
• bartering with just about everyone you meet who tries to sell you something.
• practicing your Vietnamese with the taxi drivers.
• sitting in the park on weekends and listening to the music around you.
• trying to listen in on Vietnamese conversations but realizing you literally can't understand anything.
• taking your partner students out to Dairy Queen so they can see what people eat in America.
• friendships made with everyone you meet, whether you talk to them once or live with them, and knowing that you will always have something to connect you.
• embracing the culture and trying everything that comes your way.

Day 55: October 14, 2014

With no class scheduled for today, I originally planned to sleep in but found myself awake at 8:30am. After doing some reading and trying to go back to sleep, I decided that I should start my day. Basically, this amounted to me choosing to stay awake, do some reading, and do absolutely nothing productive.

I ended up going to Backpacker Street with Tori, Cate, Alex, and Kaley. We hopped on the bus 45 and for some reason they wouldn't take our student IDs, so we had to pay full price. I know I shouldn't be complaining, though, because full fare is the equivalent of 25 cents. This bus was different from the bus we take to classes because there was no bus attendant. Instead, you entered through the front doors of the bus and paid the bus driver. So not only was this man in charge of driving the bus, but also in charge of collecting your money, giving you change, and giving you a ticket.

We ended up eating at this café where I had chicken curry with a baguette for 85,000d. The café was very cool and it serves as a training place for people with disabilities. I liked it even more because of the fact that the second floor was closed off and air-conditioned. It is getting warmer everyday, and I dread looking at my weather app in the morning to see that at 9am it is already 85 degrees.

After we finished lunch, Tori and I stayed in the café to do some homework. For some reason we couldn't connect to the internet, so we both just read instead. When Cate, Alex, and Kaley came back, we headed to another café to get drinks and use the Wi-Fi. This café had some very cool artwork on the walls for sale, and it was tempting to buy when I realized that they were each only 15USD. I resisted, though, and just ordered a water instead. We tried to find the bus stop to come back to the dormitory but were unlucky in our search, so Cate, Alex, Tori, and I ended up taking a taxi back.

I came back to the dormitory and picked up my laundry before heading to DRD. Tonight we played a game where we had to make comparative sentences about two things, such as living in the country and living in the city or reading a book and watching TV. Time flew by tonight and when our hour and a half was up our group still hadn't gotten through all of the cards, let alone start the other activity. DRD is slowly becoming something I look forward to twice a week simply because I enjoy talking to the people we work with.

Once back from DRD, we went to get something to eat. Everybody else got noodles while I had my (almost) nightly ritual of corn. I'm pretty sure the lady is surprised to see me after disappearing for a week while I was in Cambodia! I came back to my room to get some stuff done when all of a sudden the power went out. It was out for probably close to an hour, and while everybody else was upset I was thoroughly enjoying it. With nothing else to do, Alex, Summer, and I joined Cate in her room and waited together.

Since my goal was to finish as much homework as possible before going to Cambodia, I haven't had much to do yesterday or today. It's kind of nice being able to do whatever I want and not having to worry about homework that has yet to be finished, especially when the power went out. However, it's not like I have a lot of homework to be doing on a regular basis anyway. After our trip to Cambodia, it's nice to be able to come back to some sort of routine and actually be able to understand some of the sings I see on the side of the road. Who would have thought that returning to Vietnam and this crazy city would be somewhat comforting!

Day 54: October 13, 2014

After basically being on vacation for a week, it was very hard to wake up this morning and start classes again. As usual, music began blasting from the courtyard at 6:45am to wake students up and have them come down to partake in the national anthem. I did make it to class on time, but only two of us showed up. We didn't really do a whole lot in Vietnamese, but we did learn some new stuff.

When class was over, I walked to the post office to mail out some more postcards. I got back around 10am, and it was already 85 degrees outside. Nothing felt quite as good as getting on the air-conditioned bus to come back to the dormitory. Once back, I did a little homework before going with Alex and her partner student Thinh to get lunch. We walked around for a little bit before deciding on a family street vendor/restaurant. Thinh said that he prefers the restaurant street vendors from the street carts because they cook the food there and you make sure it is prepared properly. I ended up having pork and rice with some salty cucumber soup for 25,000d. On our way back to the dormitory we stopped at the Co-Op Mart to have Coke floats. It was happy hour, so the float was half off, but root beer floats are better.

After coming back to the dormitory I booked a hotel room for our trip to Dalat this weekend, which I am super excited for! The rest of the afternoon before class was spent doing basically nothing but getting some homework done. I took the bus back to environmental science class, where we learned about animal trafficking and had a quick meeting about our research projects. Then it was back to the dormitory, where I grabbed some corn and called it a night.

Some things learned today: there are air compressors and oil shops on the side of the road for motorbikes to drive up to and refill their tires with air or get more oil. Very interesting.

Day 53: Return from the Kindgom of Cambodia

Today was our last day in Cambodia, and I started the day off with the free breakfast at the hotel. I had toast, an equivalent of scalloped potatoes, French fries, fruit, and cereal. Then I headed back to the room and slept until we needed to check out.

After checking out of the hotel we got on our tour bus to head to a local village, where the guide explained a lot about the houses there. The houses are on stilts to keep spirits away, and all of their stairs are odd numbers as an extra precaution to keep them away. We went inside an older gentlemen's house, and he let us pray at his altar. Even though he lives by himself, he has two beds, one of which is set aside for the spirits that he prays to. This man also has an alligator farm at the back of his house, which we were allowed to check out. Turns out that the Khmer Rouge implemented crocodile farming as a way to kill prisoners faster during the genocide. At the village, though, we also got to see some temples and try some street food, which was a flower and banana pancake.

Some Khmer street food. The flat, round things at the top right of the picture are what we ate.

Our next stop for the day was Tonle Sap lake, which is the biggest freshwater lake in Indochina. During the dry season it covers 3,000m but during the rainy season it covers 12,000m. We didn't spend much time there, and it actually wasn't really that great. We got on a boat and these two kids that were on came around trying to give us all massages for $1 USD. We all told them no, so they would move on to the next person and just keep trying to get money out of you. The locals in some of the villages we passed also would come up to our boat on their boats and try to sell us things. It was very uncomfortable, simply because it was obvious how poverty stricken they were. Not only that, but I saw a child in one house peeing into the lake and person next door taking a bath with the same water. The only thing that sparked my interest was the fact that everything in the village was built on stilts so it wouldn't flood, including the school and church.

Our last stop for the day was a silk farm, where we got to see how silk is produced. First, they grow mulberry trees to feed the silk worms. Once the silk worms start to form cocoons, they move them to another building. After the moths have hatched, they take the cocoons and put them in warm water and start to unwrap the silk. Then it gets bleached, dyed, and weaved in order to make table cloths, bags, scarfs, and clothing. One cocoon has 400m of silk in it!

Finally we headed to the airport to come back to HCMC. I ate in the airport at the Blue Pumpkin, which makes this about the third time of had the restaurant in Cambodia. I had a tuna sandwich and got a mango melba ice cream, which was mango and green lemon ice creams. After about a 40 minute flight, we were back in HCMC airport. We got in a taxi and came back to the dorm to unpack, finish some homework, and prepare for the rest of the week. After using USD for the past week, it's very weird to adjust back to using the VND.

The Khmer language. Makes me glad to be learning a language that uses the same alphabet we do!

Other trip highlights from the Kingdom of Cambodia:

• Having my first meal that contained congealed blood (but I was too afraid to try it)
• Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

A cell that prisoners were kept in at the genocide museum. The prisoners went though horrible tortures, such as electric shocks, hanging upside down until losing consciousness, and having their fingernails ripped off.

• Seeing the Killing Fields

The genocide occurred rather recently (1970s) and so articles of clothing and bone fragments from those that were murdered are still surfacing. Once a month, workers go around and collect new pieces that have come up. It was very weird to be walking around and seeing teeth in the ground from the victims that were murdered here.

The area where the mass grave was. All of the indentations in the ground are areas that have been excavated.

"The Killing Tree," otherwise known as the tree that babies were beaten against until they died. When they found this tree after the genocide, there was blood and brain matter on it. Soldiers killed entire families so that there could be no one left to seek revenge.

Skulls of some of those who were murdered.

• Trying tarantula (which is actually pretty good!)

Just me and a friendly tarantula.

Our tarantula appetizers. Tastes kind of like chicken and kind of like popcorn.

• Having beef with stir-fried tree ants

Beef with stir fried ants!

• Taking my first tuk tuk ride
• Getting all kinds of ice cream from the Blue Pumpkin: vanilla brownie, caramel cashewnut, Khmer fruit, and pineapple
• Having traditional Khmer foods such as chicken and pumpkin and chicken and pineapple curry
• Being absolutely amazed by the temples at Angkor Archaeological Park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We got to see the sunrise and sunset from some amazing temples!

We left the hotel at 5am in order to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat.

There were a ton of tourists around, but our guide showed us a pretty good spot where we would be able to see all 5 towers of Angkor Wat.

Still waiting for the sun to fully rise.

Such an amazing sight!

Even though it was kind of hazy, it was worth getting up so early for. We toured temples from 5:30am to 10am and then again from 3:30pm to 5:30. There are over 300 temples in the park and we only saw four!

The inside of Angkor Wat.

A pool area for people to bathe before worshiping their god.

View from the highest point of Angkor Wat.

The entrance/guest house of Angkor Wat.

This statue was at Baylon, which has over 500 towers. Each tower has four faces on it that each face the cardinal directions.

The third temple we visited is known as Jungle Temple. When the French found the site, they decided not to clear cut the jungle around it. Today, there are 400-600 year old trees growing on this temple, which was built in the 12th century.

A broader shot of the Jungle Temple.

An area where Tomb Raiders, a move starring Angelina Jolie, was shot.

 

Day 48: October 7, 2014

I honestly did not do a whole not today. Since there was no class, I woke up at 9am and had breakfast, which was passion fruit and peach yogurt. I spent the day doing some homework, which included making a video for Vietnamese class of me interviewing a professor. However, I am not going to be posting that video because I don't really see the need to share my horrible interview with the entire world. I also spent some time working on my research project, which was basically me reading other studies and articles about the water situation in Ho Chi Minh City.

Besides doing homework, I also took a nap and wasted a lot of time on the internet. I also packed for our trip to Cambodia, which we leave for bright and early tomorrow morning at 6am. So excited! We will return Sunday evening, so this will be longest journey we take yet. Lastly, I received two letters today, so thanks to the Brockmeyers and Grandma and Grandpa for those!

Since it was Tuesday, we had service learning at 6:15. I grabbed a banh mi before we left because I realized that I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. I went to the coffee shop and wanted an egg banh mi but had to get chicken since they were out. When the barista handed the sandwich to me, she asks "Have you ever tried rice?" I think this lady thinks that I am not very adventurous in my food choices, even though I've only ordered a sandwich about three times!

At DRD we played a game with the students. The news was there, and I swear they are following us around and documenting our whole semester. It seems that everywhere we go they go! After DRD, I came back to the dormitory. I grabbed some corn from my favorite corn lady and also tried this new dessert called keo chi. I've seen the guy around for awhile and decided today would be a good day to try it. It's a round, white piece of something that looks and feels like Styrofoam but thankfully does not taste like it. It's topped with coconut, sweetened condensed milk, peanuts, and pink thing that he stretches out before dipping in what I assume is kind of like powdered sugar. He folds the shell in half and ta-da!, your keo chi is ready to eat. It's pretty good, but I don't think that it's something the Vietnamese get too often because it is pretty sweet.

With our excursion to Cambodia starting tomorrow, I will not be blogging again until Sunday or Monday. Stay tuned for some highlights about our trip and what we did!

Day 47: October 6, 2014

While I wouldn't say that I enjoy the music that blares from the courtyard every Monday morning at 7am, I am definitely getting used to it. If anything, it helps wake me up a little bit before I have to go catch the bus. Today was the hardest day so far for me to actually get out of bed, and I found myself wanting to fall asleep on the bus to class. I somehow made it all the way through Vietnamese class, though.

After Vietnamese class, I had plans with Kem, a girl I met at Open University English club a while ago, and two of her friends. I met them in front of the university and they took me on their motorbikes to a coffee shop. It was much more expensive than I was anticipating, but I had a soy vanilla shake which was pretty good. I know some people at home are probably rolling their eyes at the soy aspect, but it was all they served! We chatted for two hours about all kinds of things before I had to go back to the university.

I headed back to the university and went to the canteen to get a quick lunch before a meeting I had scheduled at 2pm. I saw Nhi and Alex, who are both partner students, and asked them if they would help me order lunch. Usually I can do so by myself, but today most of the rice was gone so I had to request a noodle dish. I told Nhi that I wanted yellow noodles, which are like macaroni noodles, with a fried egg. Last time I ordered this, I got a plate of noodles with vegetables and an egg. This time however, a bowl of broth with the noodles in it came out, much like a bowl of soup, with the fried egg sitting on top. Not what I had in mind, but it was very good.

When 2pm came around, I headed downstairs for my meeting, which was actually an interview. As part of our Vietnamese homework, we had to interview Vietnamese teachers in Vietnamese. The interview was very brief (what is your name, how old are you, do I speak good Vietnamese) and lasted less than two minutes. I'm not sure how well I did, so we'll let the professor decide.

After my interview, I headed back to the canteen and sat with Alex and Nhi again. We basically talked for the next three hours about everything under the sun. Right before class, I decided I wanted a snack so we wandered in front of Open University. I ended up getting a green bean sweet soup, which was exactly what I wanted. As I finished eating it, we said our good-byes and I headed to class. Class went rather quickly, and afterwards it was back to the dorm after almost 12 hours away.

Turns out that we actually were in the newspaper from the time we went to the landfill. The three links are below, but sadly they are all in Vietnamese so I am unable to read them.

http://nld.com.vn/doanh-nhan-doanh-nghiep/sinh-vien-my-hoc-ve-moi-truong-tai-khu-lien-hop-xu-ly-chat-thai-da-phuoc-20140927175046017.htm

http://www.thanhnien.com.vn/pages/20140929/sinh-vien-my-hoc-tap-thuc-te-ve-moi-truong-tai-da-phuoc.aspx

http://www.tienphong.vn/giao-duc/sinh-vien-my-trai-nghiem-ve-xu-ly-moi-truong-tai-viet-nam-764940.tpo

Also, I'm going to put a plug in for Cate's blog, www.happyhepburn.blogspot.com. She updates about once a week, so much less frequently, but it gives her time to write better posts.

Day 46: October 5, 2014

What was supposed to be a casual Sunday quickly turned into a Sunday full of events. I had made plans to meet Yen at 11am so she could help me interview people for my research project. We first grabbed lunch across the street, where I ordered a beef bot chien. This is an egg dish served with cubes of rice flour, green vegetables, and in this case beef. The man working asked if I wanted spice in my soy sauce, and I said yes. As he put two spoonfuls of chili sauce into the soy sauce I saw him laugh, and I'm pretty sure he put in some extra just to see what I would do.

Lunch was fantastically delicious, and it was then that we decided to start interviewing people. My research project is on how Vietnamese get drinking water, and my plan was to interview 5 local people, 5 street vendors, and 5 businesses. Only one local person (aka somebody we saw on the street) turned us down because he didn't want to be on tape. A few street vendors turned us down because they were busy, but the surprising part was the businesses that turned us down. It was almost like they had something to hide that they didn't want to be interviewed about where they got their water, but all of the people said it was up to the owner to decide and that he or she wasn't around.

We ended up interviewing 4 street vendors, 1 business owner (who actually gave me his water bill from last month), and 3 local people. The most interesting answers came from the local people, who mainly got their drinking water from the tap. When asked if they thought it was safe, they replied yes because they pay for it and they have not been sick yet. Ignorance may actually be bliss in this case.

Our whole journey was on the way to Yen's friend's coffee shop, where we took a break from the sweltering heat. I had a passion fruit smoothie and Yen got a milk tea and a yogurt drink. Her friend was super nice, and he gave me some dried fruits and vegetables from his home city of Dalat which were very delicious. On the walk back, Yen took me to Bach Khoa's campus and showed me the lab where she does her research on waste treatment.

As soon as I got back to the dormitory, I met up with Thao and she took me to the English club her sister works at. I asked her to take me here simply because I thoroughly enjoy talking to the Vietnamese and sharing my life with them as well as getting to know more about theirs. The session ended with karaoke, which I'm still not a big fan of, but the day was really fun. I had plans to be at Chris's house at 5pm, so we left a little early to go get a quick snack.

We ended up in front of a Co-Op with tons of kids playing outside. There were street vendors EVERYWHERE, and most of them were actually selling corn. We ended up getting some mini banh xeos from one street vendor, some corn from another, and bot chien (yes, the same thing I had for lunch) form another. The mini banh xeos were 5,000d for three and the bot chien was 10,000. The corn was the most expensive at 15,000d. I was shocked when he said the price was 15,000, simply because I haven't paid more than 10,000 for corn yet. However, when I tasted the corn I knew it was worth the extra 5,000d. It was super sweet and simply the best corn I've probably had so far.

After getting our snacks, Thao took me to Chris's house. Chris had invited all of the Loyola students for dinner and to watch a movie about Cambodia before we leave Wednesday. He made Paula Deen's fried chicken for us with green beans and mashed potatoes. Such a Midwestern meal and oh so good. Since Vien's birthday was yesterday, he also made a triple layer chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and served it with ice cream. My system is going to be on sugar overload from this weekend but it was so worth it. The movie we watched was called "The Killing Fields" and was about the war that occurred in Cambodia during the 1970s. Very interesting and it makes me more excited to learn about the history of Cambodia while we are on our trip.

When I got back to the dormitory around 10pm I Skyped with my family and also got to see Rose, Rex, Kya, Abby, Elea, and Grandma. It was so good to see them and the fact that they are picking pumpkins makes me kind of miss fall. Oh well, I am having lots of fun here!

Here is the second video I created for my scholarship about eco-tourism in Vietnam. For some reason in the last video I made it was hard to hear my voice, so hopefully that's not the case here. Enjoy!