Monday of week 2

Woke up this morning feeling about the same as yesterday, took one of the pills that the Dr. gave me for pain and ate a light breakfast. We then bussed over to UEF. The drive still baffles me. How does the driver or anyone for that matter, have any idea where they are going?! The roads are so disorganized. It seems like we approach the school from a different direction every day. I just don't get it. I'm also still confused by all of the shops. So many of them are all selling the same thing and no one is walking around buying - everyone is just relaxing in their own shop, laying out on the floor or in a chair without a care in the world. Who is keeping these stores in business?! I just don't get it.

Anyway, we got to the school and had another culture class, not as interesting as the last one but still good. The beginning was really confusing though because it was about the history of the Vietnamese people and where they all originated from. In all my years in school no one ever taught in depth Asian history to me up until today and it was all so unfamiliar. After the history section we learned some more about Yin and Yang. We also got blue books that we are supposed to read before our next class on Wednesday. That class was followed up with a language class - turns out I'm actually starting to remember some of the sentences so that's exciting! Too bad we aren't learning to ask where the bathroom is though. Right now, we're trying to learn numbers. I don't remember any of them though. Lunch was uneventful at the canteen and we then drove to the University of Agriculture and Forestry. Personally, I thought the University looked more like a zoo than a college with not many students in sight and a lot of grassy areas. We were given 3 presentations on what they do at the university, Vietnam and catfish and the University's involvement. All of the presentations overlapped to some extent and probably could have been combined into one presentation to avoid the repetition. It was nice of the University to put together so much information for us though. They are doing a lot of interesting work with experiments and have grown significantly since starting the program in the late 1990s.
After the presentations we saw a quick tour of a building which did not add much to the day but maybe that's just because I did not understand the terminology.

A long and hot car ride later, we made our way back to the hotel for a break and eventually decided to go to dinner while the boys played a basketball game with some of the UEF kids. Mike and Andrew went to look for a suit and Julie stayed in. So, Elizabeth, Ashley and I went to Pizza Hut for dinner. As in China, it was a really nice sit down restaurant. I didn't think pizza would be good for my summer so I got pasta with garlic shrimp...so spicy! I ha two bottles of water. And an appetizer of garlic and cheese bread (2 pieces of each). So much food. I regretted it later, of course. The place pizza hut was in was really cool (Diamond Plaza) with a nice bowling alley. When we got back to the hotel the boys were just getting back from basketball and decided to go out to O'Brians for dinner. They returned a lot later giddy from eating cheeseburgers and too full to go out. So, Elizabeth and Andrew hung out with the kids from Uruguay on the roof and Ashley and I hung out with Matt and Kyle for a little. Eventually, Andrew made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and I went to bed.