Day 76: November 4, 2014

This morning Binh invited me to a soccer game this evening, so we went to buy our tickets before I had to go to class. It's at the stadium right next to our dorm, and it is a "friendly match" between Vietnam and Korea. Our seats are supposedly behind one of the goals, and it should be fun to watch. After we bought our tickets, we went to get breakfast at a street vendor. I had banh mi bo kho, which was kind of like a beef stew served with bread. I added some fresh herbs, ate the beef and carrots, and then dipped my bread in the liquid to finish it off.

Right now in sociology we are learning about the role of women, and today's topic was on domestic violence and divorce. It was a very interesting class, and in a way it is strange to be learning about the downfalls of a country with regards to how its people are treated. For example, women in abusive relationships are often times told to stay married to their husbands because of the social stigma that comes along with being divorced. After class, I got lunch with Brian, Uly, and his partner, Phuoc, at a street vendor, where I had pork with rice. Instead of cucumber soup today, we had a very delicious soup with tomato in it. Then it was back on the bus to the dormitory, where I worked on some homework.

I met Binh for the soccer game at 5:30, and we grabbed some banh mi op las and drinks before walking to the stadium. At the stadium, we weren't allowed to bring in bottles, so we had to buy plastic cups to pour our drinks into. The game was a blast though, with Vietnam beating Korea 3-0. The only disappointing thing is that all 3 goals were scored within the first 20 minutes, so the rest of the game seemed boring in comparison. It was really interesting to get to see a Vietnamese event like this, though. For example, when the national anthem played all of the Vietnamese sang along, which is not something that happens in the United States. We purchased the cheapest tickets, which were 50,000d, and were seated not in chairs but rather on cement bleachers. It really wasn't that bad, though, as we were right behind the goal and had a good view whenever the team was about to score.

After the soccer game, we came back to the dormitory to get Binh's motorbike and then headed off to a restaurant near the University of Technology. We ordered three different things in order to try as much food as possible. None of it disappointed. We had banh beo, which was a small pastry with some sauce on top that tasted kind of like meat and had peanuts in it. We also had some fried bananas in rolls as well as some make your own spring roll sort of things. It was actually pretty funny, because although Binh is Vietnamese he comes from a different region and hasn't experienced this food either!

Some of the food we had tonight.

A very small dish of banh beo.

When we were finished eating, Binh convinced me that we needed to go eat worms. Do not picture worms like we have in the United States; these were nothing like it and instead are the worms that live inside of coconuts. Although he told me that they would be alive, I for some reason thought he was joking. He ordered a worm for each of us, and out came this bowl with two worms moving around in a sauce. It was disgusting and terrifying all at the same time. I somehow managed to suck it up, though, and put a worm between my chopsticks before popping it into my mouth. Binh had told me just to bite down on it and not let it move around too much, so that's exactly what I did. The first bite was crunchy (I bit down on the head) but the rest really wasn't that bad. There was no flavor except for the sauce that they had come in, and I definitely though it was going to be much worse. A video will be coming within the next few days!

Our adventures for food were not over for the night, though. We came back to the dormitory and headed to the canteen, where we each ordered a duck egg. This is not the same duck egg as the one I had with Thao this past weekend, but is instead the egg of a duck with a fertilized embryo inside. I followed Binh's instructions on how to eat it--put it in this small bowl with the beak side up, hit the end with a spoon a few times, and begin to peel the shell. After it's peeled, you drink some of the liquid before dipping your spoon in salt and eating the egg. I told myself not to spend too much time looking at what I was eating nor thinking about it, and I was able to finish the whole thing. The texture was not what I expected and seemed more like an overdone hardboiled egg if anything, but the comments I was making while eating had Binh second guessing how much he liked the duck eggs.

A fertilized duck egg as an after meal snack.

After I had finally finished the egg, we headed out into the courtyard to play badminton with some of his friends. At 11pm, the lights in the courtyard went off, and we headed up to our floor where I let them try some of the food I had brought back from Thao's. We spent some time talking about cultural differences, and then it was off to bed with a full stomach that was slowly beginning to hurt from the wide assortment of food I had eaten.