With my alarm set for 7 A.M., I naturally woke up and hour
and a half earlier because my internal clock has no clue what it is doing. While heading down to breakfast, I had no
idea what to expect. What did a
traditional Vietnamese breakfast buffet consist of? My question was answered when I walked in to
find a room filled with an assortment of rice and noodles, pastries, meats, and
vegetables. It was unlike anything I could’ve
imagined. I filled my plate with a
little bit of everything, making sure to try new foods along the way. The next
step was to get ready to meet our Vietnamese sister school students of
UEF.
When we pulled up to the school we were greeted by a group
of students holding handmade flower leis.
After multiple pictures in the hot sun outside of the school, we headed
in for the greeting ceremony. It was
filled with traditional dances from North and South Vietnam along with one
modern dance and a couple of speeches.
Dr. Berman gave his entire speech in Vietnamese so the student next to
me translated and made it clear she was thoroughly impressed with his fluency,
as was I. At the end of the ceremony, we
were presented with gifts from the school, and each of us girls got fabric for
a future gift. Once the students
finished taking pictures with all of us, the real challenge began.
My first Vietnamese class ever and I knew there was a great
chance that I would look and sound like a fool.
We started with the alphabet, and the student from UEF next to me was
very helpful, as she helped me understand how to say each letter. Vietnamese is almost musical in how it flows
together and all of us American students sounded so monotone, but we eventually
got the hand of it. And then we moved
onto a new section and had to start all over again. The students and instructor
were both patient so there was no great pressure which I know, personally, made
it a lot easier to just go for it. The class lasted for a good while, and it
turned out to be a fun time after all. Then it was off to the international
school for lunch.
We walked into a room with a long table filled with food and
a view overlooking the city. We all dug
into the dishes, not quite knowing what we were trying, but it turned out to be
incredibly tasty. Following the meal, we
moved into an air conditioned room with different fruits to try. I had never had them before and I was eager
to try them, but we were only in there for a few minutes when we were retrieved
to get fitted for our ao dai (the traditional Vietnamese women’s
clothing). The measurements didn’t take
long at all and we were soon back on our way upstairs to the air
conditioning. Only, I ended up outside
looking at the city from the balcony. The
scenery was incredible; each and every rooftop not like the one next to
it. The houses seemed to be a puzzle of
different shapes, sizes, colors, and heights that somehow managed to fit
together perfectly. I had never seen a view
quite like it and I stared at the building and flow of traffic on the street
below. I didn’t even notice the time fly
by until Dr. Berman came to retrieve us for our next stop.
Hutech deals with majors from engineering, to business, to
the arts. We had a brief introduction from the vice president of the university,
and then we split into CBA and Swanson students and went to separate rooms for
a short presentation. In the business
room, we were taught about the main reasons for doing business in Vietnam: the
advantages and the disadvantages, GDP and Foreign Investment. We didn’t have much time to get into detail,
but it did show how doing business in Vietnam is a great advantage when it
comes to making a living. We were told
by Professor Nguyen Phan that he had the opportunity to work in Australia after
studying there, but the cost of living was much too high and he knew he could
get wealthy much easier back in Vietnam. After being cut short for time, we
thanked the professor and headed back to the hotel.
Our welcome dinner began at 7 P.M. so we met up shortly
before to walk to the restaurant together.
There, we got to see how each meal is prepped and cooked for the guests.
It made my stomach growl even more when
looking at all the meals being made as we waited for our own. After walking
around and getting a tour of the kitchen areas, we settled back at our table
for a meal consisting of a little bit of everything. With watermelon juice as our beverage, we dug
into the shrimp and crab soup in front of us.
Everything tasted delicious, from the shrimp, to the chicken, to the
pork and spring rolls. By the end of
trying a bit of each, I was stuffed and ready to head back and relax for the
night.
Oh, and I am definitely improving my chop stick skills with
each meal.
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