Goodbye Vietnam

Starting our last day was exiting because we got to play sports for hours! Unfortunately, UEF brought their actual teams to this recreational event, so they dominated in basketball; however, in soccer we gave them a run for their money. Yes yes I actually scored 2 goals, I don't think I've done that in all my years of soccer. We were awarded the trophy for soccer and UEF won basketball (although I think they actually won both). After the games, we went for a "quick" lunch.

We had a couple complications getting to lunch, and finally arrived to eat pho from the middle of Vietnam.  It was a tasty meal, but I think that all of us would admit that we were all ready to go back to the hotel and prepare for going home.  Some of us headed to the Ben Thanh Market while others stayed at the hotel to pack.  After I successfully got all of my souvenirs for people back home, I headed back to the hotel to get ready for our farewell dinner.

First, we took many formal group pictures with the girls in their ao dais and the boys in their suits.  It was a fun time, but I think we were all ready for our fancy dinner ahead.  The restaurant was on a boat on the Saigon River with Ho Chi Minh City lighting up the one side. We ate, joked, and had a good time during dinner, then wandered the ship after.  The bow had a nice refreshing breeze when once we took off down the river.  Looking straight ahead, I saw the city lights on the one side and shacks with tiny fishing boats tied up outside of them on the other side.  It was like looking at two different worlds at one time.  I couldn't help but watch the boats putt by slowly after a long day of fishing just to get by, and I stared in awe thinking about where I was standing at the very moment.  I was standing on a nice, upscale restaurant boat where I had just eaten a large meal, while locals were just coming home to their small, hot shack on the side of the river from a long, tiring day working.  As I was called back to the table for Kate's final surprise, I couldn't help but continue to think about the different worlds surrounding me, but I still wanted to enjoy the remaining hours in Vietnam.  Kate had gotten us a cake for a final farewell, which I must admit, was good but not as good as cakes back home.  Still, I enjoyed it and the gesture and it began to sink in that I was about to leave this country full of kindhearted people. Sadly the night was coming to an end and we headed back to the hotel to finish packing up for our early flight.

All of us had decided to not even sleep the night before we left since we had to check out around 2 A.M. We ended up packing some, then headed to a place a couple blocks away that we drove by almost everyday, but never had a chance to visit.  It was a pond-like roundabout with walking paths of different levels about the water then a staircase leading up to a higher level where you could sit and look at the city around you.  Even higher than that there stood a giant metal flower that required a ladder to get to.  It was beautiful and peaceful even with the night life surrounding.  I sat on the edge looking down and the people walking the streets, the motorbikes rushing by, and the glowing lights of the city around me.  It was a nice break before the travel day ahead, which was guaranteed to be exhausting.  I could have sat their forever, but I knew that I had to finish packing and clean up before my early day.  Most of us just hung out in a room together, talking about things that happened on the trip, and discussing what our first meal stateside would be. It made us all excited to finally go home and when the time came we checked out and headed to the airport, arriving just after 3 A.M. Some of the Vietnamese students tagged along to see us off, which made saying goodbye extremely hard.  Between tears and hugs, I was less excited to go home, and more sorry to leave.  I knew that we would stay in touch, but its hard to say if we would ever see each other again and I hated coming to that realization.  Sadly, we had to leave no matter what and it would be a long journey home.

When we got to Hong Kong, we had to take shuttles to two other building until we finally found our gate for our flight to Newark Airport.  Once we made sure that everyone made it to the gate, we could relax for our 16 our flight ahead, where I found myself sleeping for only a couple of hours. I watched many movies, read some more of my book, and definitely did not drink enough water.  When we arrived at the airport, we had the most pleasant experience coming through customs because we could actually had a nice smiling conversation about our trip.  After the baggage claim, we said our goodbyes and went to find our families, and when I saw my mom I gave her a huge hug.  It was nice to finally be home, but I can honestly say I miss it there already and I hope to go back one day.

Last Day of Classes!

When the day commenced, we headed to UEF for our last day of classes. Finally we had an extremely entertaining lecturer who got so into his history and culture. After that fairly long and interesting class, it was time for our last language class, test day. We reviewed for a bit and then the test consisted of teams who had to do various things from verbally filling in the blank, to writing translations on the board to recited an entire paragraph about the things we've learned. After class, we had our last meal at the canteen and it did not disappoint.

We headed to the pagoda right after lunch, and it was stunning. The story of Buddha was lining the top of the each wall with a giant golden statue at the alter. I wandered around in awe and took in the beauty of this place of prayer. After exploring the pagoda for a good amount of time, we headed out to the memorial to Quang Duc. 

This monk protested the South Vietnamese government through self-immolation. He was followed by a precession of monks down the street while in a car, once he got out he soaked himself in gasoline and lit himself on fire while staying perfectly serene. What was captured on camera was a scene sinhorrifying that it somehow managed to be beautiful as a depiction of this mans derivation to his beliefs.  I could never dream of making a statement that dramatic and the memorial didn't fair to show this mans strength. After wandering around the memorial on my own for a bit, the group recollected and headed to the War Remnants Museum.

 

I was scared to step foot in this place because I knew that it would depict the United States in a way the a stubborn patriot like me would not enjoy, and I was right. It was a great learning experience and I know that it was also biased towards the Vietnamese just as anything we'd display in the states would be biased towards us, but the images I saw were not pleasing no matter what the story behind them was. Even worse, the tiger cage and guillotine outside was not something I wanted to think about, but I wandered and read and took it all in yo try and understand as much as I could. 

When it was time for dinner, we did one last Vietnamese place of choice where I got some amazing shrimp wontons. It was a pretty nice ending to a hard day and I am going to miss all of the students who took us out dearly.

Five Star

Yay, we got to sleep in today! And by that I mean I still woke up at 7 like usual. So after packing up some things I won't use for the next couple days, I made sure my roommates were awake for breakfast that ended at 9. After a quick meal, we left the hotel around 10 for our next stop, another hotel.

Only this one was 5 stars and the first one to exist in Vietnam. We took a quick tour of the amazing pool and terrace garden and then it was time for cooking class.  Which was more making the food since the sous chef had already done all of the prep work beforehand. We ended up making spring rolls and fried spring rolls which we proceeded to eat after making. When the class was complete it was officially lunch time.

Buffet style in a 5 star kitchen. There were desserts galore, sushi, fried chicken, salad, cheese, Vietnamese foods, and did I mention desserts? All of it tasted delicious (or all that I could eat at least). Plate after plate I finished the meal off with a cheese platter and a cup of tea and it was perfection. Sadly, reality came back quickly and it was back into the heat for our site visit. 

The Saigon Newport Corporation is a Navy run shipping/storage company. We were given a nice long briefing with a Q&A following, and then a tour of the navagation tower. From the tower, I could see every shipping container. Now this isn't a business that fascinates me, but even I had to admit that this was pretty cool. In the distance you could see the containers being picked up and placed in a different location. The thing that does amaze me about this is how does such a heavy container get transported so effortlessly? Yet it happens anyway, and we were going to get a grounds your but do to time and clearance, it fell through. 

When we reached the hotel, we changed quickly and all but ran to the Ben Thanh Market where we shopped inside before it shut down to move outside. Once it did so only a few of us stayed (we HAVE to find souvenirs) and it turned out to be a pretty productive time. Vy took us to a small place for a quick bite to eat where I had a delicious papya salad. After the refreshing meal, we head back to the market where we stayed until after 9 P.M. I was so tired when I got back to the hotel that I just wanted to call it a night, but a group was going to DQ and I couldn't miss out of that (these places are always better in other countries). Now after that trip, I did get back, clean up and fall asleep fairly early once again. 

Missing Home

Today we had two site visits and nothing else. Bright and early, we headed to Singapore Industrual Park for a briefing on what they do there. They're a place for many businesses to place themselves in order to build and expand in the best, most environmentally friendly way. During their Q&A, the representative from II-VI jumped in to answer, and continued on with our second briefing from there.

II-VI is a company named for the elements on the periodic table which the company started by using, columns II and VI. After the briefing and a short Q&A, we went to take a tour of two different II-VI facilities.  It was incredible for me to see how much one person had to focus on their job of repeating the same thing over and over. It was like a factory would look to anyone who's imagined one: one person repeating the same task here, another working the machine over there.  For someone who doesn't fully understand the working of microchips and such, it was hard to follow at times, but overall it was a cool experience.

After the tour, it was a quick lunch at this cute restaurant near by. With an array of food before me, it was a shame that I was not feeling up to par.  I did try most of it, and there was bread to much on as well, but overall I was ready for the drive back where I knew I could sleep.

When I woke up we were pulling up to the hotel.  With plans changing, Dr. Berman thought that we should all rest for a bit and not do anything majorly structured for the rest of the day.  After a couple hours of resting, I headed back to the Ben Thanh Market for some more souvenirs for friends and myself.  After getting a couple more things (yes I still need to go back again), Malik and I went to Soul Burger for a little taste of home.  I have to say that it was one of the best burgers I have ever had in my life, even though I couldn't finish the whole thing.

 

Once we got back to the hotel I decided to call it a night and read some until I fell asleep mid sentence.

Density Scares Me

Today it was back to the classroom for another language class, yet this one was different than any others we've had.  We had a racing game, where we were numbered off and had to race for tickets that tallied up to a tie in the end (it was to practice our numbers).  After that game, we practiced our bargaining, which didn't go too well, but we headed to the Ben Thanh Market anyway. 

When we arrived, we all split up to go our separate ways and find what we needed/wanted.  We were only given a couple of hours, so I didn't get much, but I plan to go back another day.  I did however get the coffee I was asked to get, which took much time because I bargained down the price and ended up getting a fair amount of it.  After wandering around for a little while more, and making a couple more purchases, I made a mental list of what else I should get and was ready to go for our company visit.

I had no idea what the VinaCapital Foundation or Group was before these briefings.  If I had known how amazing this company was, I would have been more excited for the visit beforehand.  Basically they make money from investments and then take that money and put it towards helping the society from an educational and medical standpoint. It was incredible to see business done right, like this place does.  They have many different programs for poverty driven areas in Southeast Asia that sound helpful and effective.  I was simply blown away, and to top it all off the CIO was just in my hometown no more than a week ago.  I'm finding that the world couldn't get much smaller, and even more so the more I travel.

(I apologize, I realize I didn't take any photos today, it was hectic!)

It Burns!

Bright and early and tired from the evening before, I grabbed a quick breakfast and hopped on the bus for our 2-3 hour trip to Vung Tau.  I am proud to say that I was asleep for the entire ride there and woke up to sunny beaches outside my window.  We arrive at the base of a giant hill/mountain not knowing exactly what lay ahead.  When we started up the uneven stairs, I thought to myself how beautiful the view was.  Blue ocean stretching as far as I could see, and gorgeous flowers lining the path ahead.  But the stairs were endless and by the time I reached the top the only thing I could think of was how much sweat was pouring off of me, but once I reached the top of Jesus, the view was completely worth it. There was nothing but city in the middle and beautiful beaches lining either side followed blue oceans filled with fishing boats.  If the arms of Jesus could fit more than 4 people at a time, then I would've stayed there forever.  Sadly I had a beach to get back to.

Knowing that I would burn if I didn't take proper precautions, I bathed in sunscreen and let it soak in for the proper amount of time before hitting the water.  Unfortunately, I was extremely sweaty before I put the sunscreen on, and even more sweaty once I stepped foot back in the sun.  But the water was warmer than any ocean I had ever been in before, and I stayed there almost the entire time until lunch, only to take a break by dipping in the pool.  The food at the restaurant was endless to the point where I couldn't even try it all because I was so full. And near the end of the meal, I noticed how red my shoulders were.  I guess being as thorough as I was with the sunscreen, it just wasn't good enough.  For the remainder of the day at the beach, I sat in the shade chatting with Bryan and watching our group of silly Americans make a commotion in the sand.  The games they played were entertaining to watch so I never grew bored, but when the time came to leave, I couldn't complain because I was exhausted. We stopped at a large market on the way back to the hotel where Ms. Loan bought us snacks to share for the remainder of the trip.  When we reached the Victory, I decided it was a night to relax and go to bed early, by falling asleep instantly.

The Darkest Hour

Friday night we decided to have a girls night with Kate, which turned out to best the best idea ever.  We started the evening by trying on our personally tailored Ao dai and running down to show Dr. Berman and Bryan.  They absolutely loved them, and so did we. The detail in the design was incredible and some locals at the hotel were so impressed that they asked to take pictures of and with us.  And after our 5 minutes of fame, we headed out to go shopping as stereotypical tourist girls.

With Kate by our side, we took a cab to the more touristy shops along a strip near the Opera House.  In and out of a couple stores, I only ended up buying two souvenirs (I'm planning on buying most when we go to the market).  Then Kate introduced us to the best peach tea I have ever tasted in my entire life.  The bottom was warm when she handed me the cup, but the rest of the cup was ice cold.  Once I stirred it around a bit, I found that there were real sliced peaches resting on the bottom and the rest is history.  While still enjoying our tea, we headed to an area where Kate could buy a swimsuit for our beach trip on Sunday.  Though the shops were already closed, we decided to head to a couple others and just look around, and I can proudly say that it was a success for all.  When planning what to do for the rest of the night while standing outside of a shop, a Vietnamese ABBA remix came on and we simply couldn't resist singing along...and dancing.  The next thing I know, the man outside the shop runs inside and cranks up the music, then comes back out to join us dancing.  All around our little circle, people were filming the American girls and their sidewalk dance party.  Once it finally settled down, we explored the city for some food, Kate wanted pizza, but ended up eating late night noodles in our hotel room instead.  And finally, we got to rest for the long day ahead.

When 8 A.M. rolled around, it was time to head to the Cu Chi district for our day at the tunnels.  As we headed out of Ho Chi Minh City, I could instantly see green fields of rice patties and other farms.  It was a completely different environment from the one I had been in the entire week prior, and it was about to change even more.  The site of the Cu Chi tunnels that we visited were up north a bit more, and there was a forest all around us.  When we started on the trail, our guide showed us an example of one of the tunnels by going down and closing it behind him, and popping up behind us.  From there we continued on and as I looked around I could see old bomb craters covered by thick vegetation.  Though going through each tunnel was a neat experience, bats and all, I couldn't help but feel sad while imagining the things that went on here.  If it were completely silent, with no tourists, the only sounds you would hear are the bugs surrounding you, and that is an eerie feeling.  Only the day didn't get much brighter after that.






















Once we finished our lunch with a beautiful view, we headed to the temple near the tunnels.  Inside, there were the names of the fallen listed on the walls, and outside there stood murals of the battles from the war.  It amazes me how such a beautiful location can depict so many dark things using incredible works of art.  After spending a fair amount of time wandering around the temple, we headed to the related cemetery of the fallen.  Once I walked through the gates, I didn't know how to react.  Similarly to Alrington, grave stone after identical grave stone lay, perfectly gridded into the distance.  I wandered along, trying to wrap my mind about the things that led to these deaths.  As I walked towards Dr. Berman and Arielle, we discussed the ages, villages, and saddest of all the unknown facts of each fallen civilian.  It was something that none of us needed to vocalize, but we walked together in silence for a bit, reading each headstone, and eventually sat down to a helpful conversation, after which we headed to the hotel to rest our minds.