The trip so far has been incredibly amazing. I've definitely been looking forward to our long awaited soccer and basketball games. We were thinking that we would maybe lose in soccer and dominate in basketball, but it happened to be the other way around. Our coach, Bryan, led us to almost victory during our basketball game (I have no clue what the score is but let's be honest it was probably pretty close) and then he led us to another almost victory in our soccer match. Despite the loss in the first soccer match, he led the team to victory in the girls vs girls soccer match. It definitely helped that a lot of the team has played competitively before. No one really played much basketball before coming to 'Nam though. But after the games, we were all definitely way sweatier than we've ever been the entire trip.
After the amazing games, we stayed around the gym a little longer to talk to all of the Vietnamese students. There, we all exchanged gifts. Afterwards, we took our bus to get lunch. At first, the driver dropped us off at the wrong place. We walked around for a few blocks before we actually realized. Luckily, Kate found a street vendor selling really cold tea! It was really more of a bottle of honey with some tea added to it. Ms Luan got our bus driver back and we wound up showing up to the restaurant about 20 minutes late. When we were seated, we were welcomed by a sampler of a bunch of different gelatinous rice type foods. I wasn't really a big fan of all of the gelatinous stuff, but this was pretty great. We didn't even bother trying to get the Vietnamese students to explain what the stuff was, we just really wanted to get our food.
After the gelatinous rice stuff, we got served some phở that had a bunch of stuff in it. The weirdest thing there was the chunk of blood floating in the bowl. Definitely didn't eat that. Besides that, there was a bunch of other meat in it and I had no clue what any of it was, but it was amazing. After lunch, we all piled into a nearby room, still in the restaurant and were served dessert. Dessert was a drink made with coconut milk, ice, corn paste, chunks of jelly, and of course some other unidentifiable stuff.
Later on, we had some down time in the hotel. We were advised to start packing, but I took a nap (priorities of course). In the evening, we all went down to the lobby in our best attire (áo dài for the girls and suits for the guys) to take some pictures with Ms Luan and some of the UEF students.
It was pretty great being able to see everyone all dressed up. Of course, the people that were just hanging out in the lobby before we came down were staring, but we're a good looking bunch of people so it's definitely understandable.
Following all of the photos, some of us changed into some business casual outfits while a lot of us stayed in our suits and we all went out to our farewell dinner. Dinner tonight was definitely as fancy as it gets. We went out to eat on a boat and got a bit of a boat tour of the city. Ho Chi Minh City looked incredible from the river. Of course, we all had to go to the side and front of the boat to check out the view. But the food was pretty great too. We started out with a few seafood dishes plus a bunch of vegetables. Afterwards, there was a hotpot filled with some noodles, vegetables, beef, and some fish balls. After the meal, Ms Luan presented us with an amazing cake with both the Pitt and UEF logos and the caption "Plus 3 Vietnam 2015 Friends Forever" printed on it. Two guys from a nearby table came over to me and said that they had a bet to see who could get a piece of cake first. They were Canadian too which meant that I had to get Canadian Aster involved in the conversation.
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| Views from the boat |
At the end of the night, I had to start packing. It was a struggle. Luckily Rachel brought a scale for our suitcases and when I weighed mine, it was 48 pounds, just below the limit. Later, some of us went to a nearby roundabout that had a bit of a pond in the center. We drove by it almost everyday but never actually went to visit it. Despite a few rats (GIANT RATS) it was an amazing sight. Above the water were multiple walkways and stairs and above everything was a giant metal flower. Afterwards, most of us reconvened later. No one went to sleep since we had to check out of the hotel by 2 am.
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| Metal flower tower in the roundabout |
Of course while we were in the airport, I got stopped twice. At Cu Chi Tunnels, I bought a lighter made from old bullets. That didn't fly with the Vietnamese TSA (wow that was punny) and so I lost it. At the gate, I got stopped again because they forgot that they already took it out of my suitcase and wanted to search it again. Fortunately, I didn't get stopped again. Then we got to Newark. I got stopped by TSA on account of a bottle filled with liquid in my backpack. After talking to the TSA agent about spicy food while he searched my bag, there was no bottle (surprise). Later, I finally arrived at BWI. I was walking over to baggage claim and nearly walked by my mom who was there waiting for me. She laughed at me a bit when I started talking to her because I lost my voice on account of laryngitis (no clue how I got laryngitis). It was great to be home, but I was definitely looking forwards to my next trip to Vietnam.
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| Day one throwback |
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