Xin Chào!

First full day in Vietnam, what an eventful day! After a great sleep, it was pretty easy to get going today, not to mention all the excitement. We got up and had an AMAZING breakfast at the Victory Hotel: rice, sausage, fresh fruit, dumpling, pastries, and bacon. I also tried my first Vietnamese coffee; most liked it, but I'm not sure yet, (maybe I need more condensed milk? ) stay tuned for an update on that. We then got our new shirts from the University of Economics and Finance (UEF), which are somewhere between a soccer jersey, a school uniform, and the red dress from Annie (yes, that Annie). We hopped on our little bus and drove to UEF. STREETS ARE CRAZY! There are scooters everywhere with very little organization  to it. Although, its not aggressive, just an odd, semi-chaotic, slow flow through the streets. Anyway, we made it to UEF and were greeted by our very enthusiastic Vietnamese counterparts who gave each of us really nice flower garlands. We went up to the top of the building for our welcome ceremony, quite a treat. The students performed traditional Vietnamese dances and there were several speeches. Our Dr. Berman gave his speech in Vietnamese; I have no idea what he said, but apparently he was hilarious. A representative from the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) also gave a speech in Vietnamese (this one with a student translating). The students gave us gifts, as of common custom in Vietnam, nice red ties for the guys and clothing fabric for the girls (they were later fitted for áo dài, traditional Vietnamese dresses). We took a huge barrage of pictures with the students and headed down a few floors to a classroom. Here, we had our first Vietnamese language class....... wow. For those who don't know, the language includes 29 letters with 12 different vowels, each with a different sound. There are also six different "tones" for the vowels which is kind of like the pitch to pronounce them. The word "ma" has six different meanings, depending on the tone: ghost, which, horse, grave, mother, and rice seedling. Needless to say, this was quite amusing to watch everyone give a crack at it. The Vietnamese students did a great job helping us with the pronunciations, but talking with them in English was cool too. We also started into pronouns and a few phrases. Xin chào! (Hello, good bye, good morning/afternoon/evening). He said "xin chào" to the students and went to the University of Kent for lunch. The food was yet again amazing and interestingly served family style with just each person using a small bowl and chopsticks (I think I've got the hang of them); we also happen to have a beautiful look out over Ho Chi Minh City. We relaxed there for a while and then went to the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH), the big sister school of UEF, for a short talk about the school from an engineering professor. The man ended up diving into his philosophies on travel, education, and living life to the fullest and it was awesome! We got back on our bus and headed back to hotel around 4:00. A group of us went to the co-op just around the block to use an ATM and get water and snacks for the hotel. Have you ever taken 2 million (dong) out of an ATM? I have and it feels awesome! Everything in the co-op was also dirt cheap, only costing me $10 (US) for supplies for our stay. We walked back to the hotel, changed, and took a nice dip in the pool. I should mention it has been mid 90s F, with upwards of 80% humidity, in others: really hot. The pool was definitely a good reprieve, even though I lost AND FOUND my glasses in the pool. Afterwards, we changed into nicer clothes for dinner. We walked towards downtown to Nhà Hàng Ngon, a restaurant that takes street food cooks into sanitary kitchens and serves them for a formal restaurant. Everything was absolutely delicious, even the prawn eye (no, that isn't an actual custom, it was just a "why not moment" at our table). We took our time enjoying every bite and then walked back to the hotel to wrap up our day. This has been incredibly busy, but I'm having an absolute blast! I'm ready for Day for Day Two, but for now, xin chào!