Wow. There are no words that can describe the past two days. In
the first 24 hours I experienced so many new and different things.
I woke up on the first day at 6:30 on my
own and couldn't fall back asleep. I guess it was jet lag or something but it
was great because I was wide awake. Starting when I woke up, I was constantly
overstimulated with Vietnamese culture. The breakfast was completely different.
Noodles, dumplings, vegetables, tropical fruits like guava and dragon fruit,
etc. The coffee is also very different. Its really thick and rich and is
traditionally served with sweetened condensed milk making it a very heavy and
rich drink but it tastes amazing.
From there we went to the University of
Economics and Finance (UEF) where we were instantly presented with floral
wreaths, received gifts and watched several dances performed for our arrival.
This too was a lot to take in. This was our first encounter with the Vietnamese
students as well, They are the nicest people I have met in my entire life, and
oh my god do they like to take pictures. at one point I stood in one place
while several Vietnamese girls took turns taking pictures with me...if only I
could get american girls to like me that much.
Right after the welcome ceremony we went
to our first language class. Vietnamese is really hard. It's a tonal language
and if you get the tones wrong it will be a completely different word. My
Vietnamese is coming along...not very easily though.
After language class we had lunch which
was amazing. It was family style Vietnamese food I at a lot of it. After lunch
we went to The Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH). There we
learned about the Vietnamese University system and how it operates especially
with respect to Engineering. This was very interesting because its very
different from US universities.
We then returned to the hotel and had a
few hours before we went to our welcome dinner which was CRAZY. It was a
restaurant that exhibits all the best street food of Vietnam and it was the
most incredible meal I have ever had (food post to follow).
All in all it was a crazy day. I
experienced so much of the city and the culture I felt like it was a year's
worth of experiences but it had only been the first day
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