Today was one of my favorite days. We started off with a Vietnamese culture class that was both informative and helpful in that it explained some of what we were seeing around us. For example, the Vietnamese students took us out to dinner and insisted on paying. As good…I don’t even have a term here, we insisted that we pay our share if not the whole bill. It turns out that in Vietnam if someone says, “Let me take you out to dinner,” they are going to pay for it. We also learned that western communication revolves around reason while Vietnamese communication is love based, which explains why Vietnamese tend to ask so many questions when they meet you—they want to get to know you and be your friend first. We also learned that community spirit is very important here. One thing that I found particularly interesting was Caodaism, which is a religion that combines all other religions. Apparently inside their temple one can find pictures and statues dedicated to Jesus, Allah, Jehovah, etc.
After a short break we had another language class session. Today we learned numbers and how to bargain, which will come in handy when we visit the market. Because of our effort to learn Vietnamese, we even received actual copies of our language books, as we had previously been using photocopied packets.
Our visit on this day was to the U.S. Commercial Service, which is an extension of the U.S. Consulate here. The man we spoke with there was VERY interesting and I think everyone agreed that this may have been one of the best visits yet. I appreciated the fact that their job is to try and keep jobs in the U.S. and help companies export their goods TO Vietnam. The discussion was very broad but not a second of it was uninteresting.
After a couple hours of free time spent in the roof top hotel pool, we went to a UEF dance class. Students at the University of Economics and Finance here have the option to sign up for dance, singing, guitar, and other classes at no additional cost. This class was SO much fun! We learned tango, something like the twist, and a couple other dances (and I also learned that I still have two left feet). We even taught some of the Vietnamese a few dances.
The Vietnamese students then took us to a restaurant known for its chicken and rice. We sat out on the sidewalk on small stools at short tables. The meal was VERY good! We started off with delicious spring rolls and then got our plate of chicken and rice.
At this point we said good night to the Vietnamese students and walked around on our own a bit to see what we could see. We stumbled upon the Rex Hotel, a place Dr. Berman and Matt recommended. Their top floor restaurant/bar area has some really neat views and great live music. The atmosphere is really cool—we were sitting in the open air with lanterns and decorations around us and a large spinning crown as the focal point. This was a good end to a good night.
No comments:
Post a Comment