Day 4

Today was a pretty relaxing, easy day. The morning began with a guest lecture at UEF on Rural Planning and Development: the Mekong Delta as well as some general information on Vietnam that was interesting. The presenter had just gotten back from some time in America and had very well spoken and easy to understand English. I sat next to a really nice girl, Tam, who gave me some additional information on the slides - what foods were good, the traditional clothing, the floating market, etc. After the presentation we had some time to hang out and take a lot of pictures with teh UEF students.
After taking many pictures, we had our first Vietnamese culture class that I liked a lot more than either of our language classes. We learned all about communication in the Vietnamese culture and even though I was, as usual, hungry, the whole thing went fast. Some interesting facts were:
Vietnamese communication is based on love and feelings, not logic or laws like in China or Korea

circles are very good - if you are friends with someone you will tell them how round something is, even if the object is not circular are good. If you are mad or do not like someone, you will comment on how deformed and not round an object is

Do not say thank you, instead compliment - your soup is very delicious. That shirt fits you well, etc.

The Vietnamese like to ask very personal questions - to them, nothing is too personal: age, relationship status, etc.

Women are most respected in the family

After the class we had lunch in which I could not really find anything to eat (we thought something was dog but turns out it was only pork that smelled really weird) so I ate my protein meal bar and some really good bananas. Then, we had to come back to the hotel to change into something more business casual. The building that the presentation was in had a delicious French bakery where I got two different types of chocolate croissants. It also had Limited Brands' La Senza but I did not get to go in. We were then placed in a room with a great view of Ho Chi Minh - Professor Berman explained to us how none of the tall buildings we see today were here 10 years ago. Its amazing how many reminders there are of how far Vietnam has come in just 10 years. The presentation was by Jennifer from the US Consulate who works in the economics department. She deals with a lot of issues including GDP production, the environment, ethics, etc. It seemed like a really interesting subject to be involved with, especially in a country such as Vietnam that is growing so rapidly. Only 10 months ago she was working in the immigrant office and deciding who to give visa's to but now she gets to travel around the country and research. They also mentioned an interesting internship program for the foreign service. Oh, and we found out why there are so many safe stores everywhere - people here don't really believe in or trust the bank especially when the dong is so unstable so they keep their money in their house, or invest in gold, thus, they need the safes! And, when asked what material possesions demonstrate wealth here, we were told that although some do want to keep up appearances and have the latest things, the majority of Vietnamese just want to be able to support their family and be happy - so much more modent than Americans. (speaking of latest things though - we saw a new HD 3D tv, it was amazing). Just as we were leaving the building it starts monsooning outside. The only other time I've seen rain like this was when we were stuck at the zoo in China in the rain. We tried to wait it out but after a while people decided to walk ( we were going to the market) so off we went. Only one side of my got soaked because the other half was under Andrew's umbrella. Shopping while wet was not ideal but I still bought a few things.

Finally, we went to dinner - still wet. and the restaurant was very fancy. Elizabeth and I cleaned ourselves up as much as possible but it was pretty hopeless, and cold since we were wet throughout the whole dinner. We decided to share though and ordered fried noodles with beef and grilled prawns in butter. A long time later a mini lobster showed up in front of us. That was a surprise. Looking back, i guess the menu said grilled prawn (not plural); not what we expected at all. after laughing for a while we started with our noodles and beef which was amazinggg. It tasted like something I would get in America but better. Everything from the beef to the broccoli to the noodles were delicious. Elizabeth and i fought over the final few bites. As for the prawn? we each got 2 bites of the tail, that's it. I cracked it with my hands which wasn't easy considering the whole thing was soaked in a delicious but sticky butter sauce. It was a huge disappointment but at least entertaining since neither of us were expecting a lobster to show up in front of us. The restaurant was called Nam Phan and is in walking distance from our hotel so I really hope to go back at least once more!

Once again we got back to the hotel pretty early and had a lot of time to shower and warm up from the rain. I tried to catch up on my blogging but failed because we all ended up hanging out and getting ready to go out. We decided on Lush, a group favorite from last year's trip. We had the address this time so we got there fine but then, of course, there was a problem: the boys could not get in because they were wearing shorts. The girls and Mike decided to go in and wait while the boys went back to change. We had a lot of fun, the place itself was really nice and cool looking. My only complaint is that they didnt play many songs, just beats, but overall it was really fun. We got back to the hotel eventually and I went right to sleep. I had really weird dreams and heard all types of sounds coming from the room. I found out later that I asked Julie in the middle of the night if there was a monkey in our room? I don't remember asking but i'm not surprised; i was hearing so many sounds. If the weird dreams continue I might give up on the malaria pills again.