Its been incredible these last twelve days exploring a country so entirely foreign I couldn’t tell you a single true thing about it. Ive learned so much from the culture to the economy of Vietnam. The students could not have been more gracious hosts and they especially made our experience as good as it could ever be. They brought us to their favorite restaurants, clubs, and stores including Vietnamese Chipotle, Fox club and Mr. Potato. The students were both unique and very interesting I talked to them about their home lives, their government, their perceived future, and what they do for fun. The most interesting thing I have heard about the government is about China. The Vietnamese hate China and the Chinese, they feel that the Chinese are using Vietnam and exploiting it while simultaneously puppeting the Government. Additionally the Vietnamese people are required to vote, and when asked if they believe that the elections matter, they said no its usually all predetermined and with little changes one way from the other. Another interesting piece is that if the Vietnamese people are unable to make it to the University and further their education, they are required by law to enter the military. As for today, we woke up at 8:45 to one of the hottest days thus far in Vietnam, and lucky us, it was sports day in the non-airconditioned gymnasium. We played soccer, tug of war and had a sack race against the Vietnamese students. The university’s soccer team played our 5 best players and incredibly we managed to squeak out a win. Tug of war was no contest, with half of us being just about twice their size. After sports and bathing in sweat, we went home and showered and had lunch at the hotel. The first day or two, the hotel buffet was incredible. The mysterious food was amazing. By the last day i couldn’t eat another same tasting dumpling or formerly delicious dim sings. After lunch we had our presentations which went pretty well and then we had to sweat through an outdoor dinner in our OWWE DIEES overtop of sweatpants and a long sleeve tee because we HAD to be dressed well for our hotel buffet (fancier than our normal hotel though.) then we had a bumping bus ride to the airport with as many UEF friends as possible. We said our goodbyes and here I am, typing for my blog for the last time with the worst WIFI connectivity in the world.
GOODBYE VIETNAM!
Vinny gets cultured 