The start of today was very slow. After a not so good sleep, I woke up at 9am and called my friends back home. It was really good to talk to them, and we probably talked for 2.5 hours or so. I promised them that they could speak to a Vietnamese student at some point, so we'll see how well that goes.
Around 12:30 I went with Cate to get lunch. We headed to G7, the coffee shop right next door, and ended up meeting a guy from Cambodia. Seems like such a funny coincidence since we are headed to Cambodia this week! Our original plans for the day were to go to District 1 because she wanted to find body spray and I want to find contact solution that can be brought on a plane. We decided to explore this mall across from the bus stop, and we spent a good hour or two there. It was like stepping into a portal to the United States. Nice clothing, brand names, and expensive. We looked around for a bit and explored each of the five floors. The fifth floor had an arcade, bowling alley, food court, and grocery store. This grocery store was very Americanized. We're talking frozen pizzas, boxes of Oreos, Heinz items, etc. Cate found this jelly from France that she eats at home, so she ended up buying that and some peanut butter. We then decided that we didn't really want to go anywhere, so we walked back to the dormitory. Along the way, Cate bought some bread off the street to eat with her jelly and we went into Co-Op to look for the items we wanted. No luck for us.
We got back to the dorm and I wrote out some postcards and tried Cate's peanut butter and jelly, which was very good. The rest of the afternoon was spent doing a whole lot of nothing, but we had plans to meet up with our Open University partners at 6:30. When 6:30 rolled around, we got on their motorbikes and headed to a restaurant that was in my guide book called Banh Xeo 46A. It was in some alleyway, and since it is in the guidebook I was expecting there to be a lot of tourists but it was mostly Vietnamese. Neither of our partners had been there before, so it was great to try something new with them. Cate and I ended up treating them as a thanks for everything they've done so far this semester, and between the four of us we shared two banh xeos and some fried spring rolls. Fried spring rolls are the only way that I will eat spring rolls because of how much better they are than raw spring rolls. The banh xeos, which are thin egg pancakes with bean sprouts, pork, and shrimp inside, were also excellent. You eat them by tearing off a piece with your hand, wrapping it in fresh lettuce and herbs, and dipping it in fish sauce. So good!
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| Banh xeo and fried spring rolls. |
We had also decided that we wanted to introduce our partners to Dairy Queen, and both of them were super excited for this! Again, this was our treat, and when we got to DQ we explained what they could order. Our only stipulation was that all four of us had to get something different so that they would be able try more things. They both said they wanted "one of those things you can tip upside down" so we went through the different flavors of a Blizzard they could get. Cate's partner wanted an M&M Blizzard, so Cate ordered that and a chocolate brownie waffle cone sundae. As Thao and I were looking at the different flavors for Blizzards, I told her that we don't have green tea flavored ice cream in the United States. She decided to try a green tea choco chunk Blizzard and I ordered a banana split. (Fun side note about Blizzards: they don't have nearly as many flavors here as they do in the US. For candy they have Kit-Kat, Snickers, M&M, and Oreo, and then they have some other flavors as well. They probably have less than 10 flavors.)
When the Blizzards came out, Thao and Hannah were both super excited to tilt it upside down. They were amazed at how sweet the ice cream was, and they actually couldn't finish their Blizzards. Not that Thao wanted to finish hers anyway. Green tea ice cream is not a good flavor, so I traded her for my banana split. They really enjoyed DQ though and it was so great to be able share part of our culture with them.
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| Introducing Hannah to Dairy Queen. |
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| Amazed at Blizzards! |
At this point, Cate and I decided to cancel our plans to get sweet soup with the guys from last night so that we could spent more time with Thao and Hannah. They took us to the park where a lot of university students hang out at night, and we also got to wander through a flea market. Thao bought me a pin that says "I love Vietnam", which was super nice of her. We eventually made it to the park, where there were people in small groups talking and playing music. It was so different than anything I've seen in the United States! When we got to the park, we were each given a piece of newspaper to sit down on and it's almost a requirement that you order something to drink. We got two Sting, which is an energy drink, to split between the four of us. We just sat and talked and listened to the music around us until we realized it was 10pm and they needed to get back home.
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| Diamond Plaza lit up at night. |
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| Jam session happening next to us. |
All in all, this weekend was fantastic and everything I wanted it to be. I feel like I finally got the chance to do things in a more Vietnamese style, and it's always great to hang out with the partners. Not only that, but they are able to do things with us that I would never know to do, such as hang out in the park at night. I'm so thrilled that the weekend went the way it did, and I'm so glad that I decided to stay here so I got the chance to experience everything I did!
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