First Week of Classes, Life in Saigon, Tourist Activities

This weekend the entire Vietnamese contingency of our group, Vi and our roommates Loan, Trang, and Hanh, has gone to visit family so Anna and I took the opportunity to be American tourists today. We went to the Vietnamese history museum, the botanical gardens, the zoo, and the large shopping center, Diamond plaza. The history museum was very nice. It was set in a very beautiful Chinese style building and had a lot of artifact and art displays. Thanks to Professor Paterson, I was able to identify the Buddhist and Hindu imagery in the artwork and talk about the four positions of the Buddha, the objects that Vishnu holds, and the inclusion of the lotus in artwork. Introduction to Southeast Asia for the win!

Vietnamese history museum from the outside

The Hindu sculptures I was able to identify

After that, we went to the zoo and botanical gardens. The gardens had a lot of bonsai trees as well as a surprisingly large collection of cacti. I'm not usually a huge fan of zoos but this one was not bad for being in such a big city. The zoo had a large collection of animals native to Southeast Asia and Southern China with my favorite probably being the Asiatic black bear. Another cool part was that some of the monkeys didn't really have enclosures and were kind of just swinging around the trees.

Botancial Gardens

After that I had my first bành mí, a Vietnamese specialty that shows a fusion of Vietnamese with French influence. It is a baugette with pork, Vietnamese vegetables, and some type of sauce which I do not know the name of.

Me eating bành mí

Then we headed over to the Notre Dame cathedreal next to Diamond plaza and a very nice park where old people like to do calesthenics in the morning and where young people like to have coffee at night. Going into Diamond plaza was kind of a reverse culture shock after a week in Vietnam. The store has several stories of designer clothing and makeup with a Pizza Hut, KFC, bowling alley, and arcade games on the top floor.

Notre Dame with Diamond Plaza in the Background

Tonight we plan on going to place that has Vietnamese musicians singing Vietnamese and English songs called "The Acoustic Bar."

Yesterday also marked the end of my first week of classes in Vietnam and so far things have been going pretty well. Sometimes I get a little homesick or overwhelmed by speaking Vietnamese almost constantly (Friday I had three hours of one-on-one Vietnamese class, two hours of volunteering at the shelter, and a lot of Vietnamese conversation with my roommate), but overall this is turning out to be a great experience. I alternate with being very impressed with how much vocabulary I have and how much more easily I can speak with being frustrated when people can't understand my basic sentences because of my accent. Hopefully my frustration will lessen as I become more accustomed to people's natural pace of talking and the subtle (to me) differences in tones. In other news, Anna has learned more about the rooster, or, in fact, roosters, that we hear outside our window every morning. One early morning when she was taking a walk she discovered them being boiled alive in a giant pot of water. No wonder they are so loud...

Cuồi tuần này sinh viên Việt Nam, Vi và các bạn phần phòng, đi thăm gia đình nên Anna và tôi tìm hiểu Sài Gòn. Trước hết chung tôi đến bảo tàng lịch sử Việt Nam.

Starting classes, volunteering

My guest house at night

Yesterday our teacher explained our class schedule to us and talked about some of the trips that we would be taking. I am extremely excited for the trips. The ones that are coming up are a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels, a wildlife reserve, a trip around the Mekong Delta, and seeing the reunification palace and museums around the city. After lunch we met our roommates. My roommate's name is Trang and she goes to the foreign trade university which people here say in the best university in Saigon. Right away we started bonding with a very challenging game in which we had to go around the city and find certain things and take pictures of them. We worked in pairs with our new roommate. We got one point for one roommate being in the picture and two points if we asked someone else to take a picture with both of us in it. I was extremely embarassed to do this, especially since we were asking to take pictures with very odd things like a bành mí vendor or a tailor specializing in áo dài. We were only allowed to take the bus or walk. It may have been far out of my comfort zone but it was a good way to get me to speak Vietnamese with strangers, learn how to use the buses and get to know my roommate. I'm starting to get used to the buses here but they can be a little intimidating. They don't really stop when you get on or off, they just sort of slow down and there is usually someone standing by the door to push/pull you on/off. I think I'm probably one of the first white person that anyone has seen riding the bus as well. I've posted a few pictures from the photo hunt.

My roommate and I looking a display of áo dài

Next to a bánh mì and tofu pudding vendor

Today, we took our placement test for Vietnamese. As I expected, the written portion was fairly easy but I got very shy when it came to the oral portion. Overall I think that I did pretty well but it doesn't really matter because Vi is completely fluent and Anna is a complete beginner so we will all be in our own class anyways. Our classes seem like they will be very challenging and helpful. Monday and Wednesday we have a standard class with reading, writing, speaking, and listening and on Friday, we have a practical where a teacher will give us a conversation task with a stranger from the streets. For example, we might have to ask someone directions to a place or have a discussion about the Vietnam War. Tomorrow is my class "Society and State in contmeporary Vietnam."

Today I also went to my first meeting at the Little Rose Shelter. I have mixed feelings after my first meeting. On one hand I was extremely frustrated because I was supposed to meet with the director at 2 but when i got there, the staff was having a meeting and they made me wait around for 50 minutes only to tell me to come back Wednesday and start work then after I had taken two buses and 40 minutes to get to the shelter on the outskirts of town. I'm still not entirely sure what I will be doing there. On a positive side though, while I was waiting I got to talk with some of the girls there in Vietnamese. My program director warned me that it might be difficult to talk with them and that many were very reserved because of their past experiences but the girls that I spoke with were very friendly and sweet and patient with my Vietnamese. It was also very surprising how young they all seemed. The Little Rose Shelter takes girls age 12-18 but they all seemed younger than that. If I hadn't known this previously and asked some of the girls how old they were, I would have thought that they were between 8 and 13. I suppose I will learn more on Wednesday and hopefully it will still be a very positive experience for me.

Ngày thứ nhất

Today was my first full day in Vietnam and it has been full of excitement. I woke up very early this morning and went to a meeting with the director of our program. She is a Vietnamese American named Alyce and is very kind and helpful. She talked a lot about the trips we would be taking and the activities that we would be doing throughout the semester. I am getting really excited for our weekend trips and especially our long trip to Hue and Hanoi where we get to take the train and see Central and Northern Vietnam. We each must also submit a proposal for a weekend activity plan during the semester. If anyone has suggestions of things to do within a couple hours drive of the city, I would be happy to hear them. Although very friendly, Alyce spent a lot of time scaring us. She started a lot of sentences with, "I don't want you to be paranoid but..." There are certainly dangers of living in the city but I think overall she prepared us very well for them. The cockroach that I found in my room this morning. My first reaction was to jump up on my chair like a little girl, then to take a picture, then to smash it with my notebook.

Then followed our walking tour of the city. I finally got to face my fear of crossing the streets here. It wasn't so bad with a group of four of us and eventually it actually became kind of fun. If you walk at a slow steady pace, the motorbikes will just go around you and even though it seems that the stop lights are more a suggestion than law, they can make predicting the flow of traffic much easier some times. We saw great alleyway places to eat, fancy department stores, large markets, parks, the famous Notre Dame church, and government buildings. I was amazed how exciting and diverse the city is. We were also taught how to spot "fake cabs" which often wait outside of tourist attractions. After our walking tour we had lunch at a very nice restaurant specializing in bún. It was nice to sit in the air conditioning for awhile as I still have not quite gotten used to walking around in this heat and humidity. This afternoon Anna, another student, and I walked around the city a bit on our own trying to get our bearings and try crossing the streets outselves. We also ate a very nice restaurant for dinner. We ended up going to a pretty nice restaurant for dinner and I was worried that it might be expensive. It amazes me that even at this "expensive" restaurant, the bill came to a little under $5 for the two of us. I have also noticed that the three restaurants we went to, all sit-down places, deliver your food to you less than two minutes after you order. We also had quite a funny experience at dinner. Anna ordered the spring rolls, which are what the restaurant was known for. The waiter brought out my dish and a bowl of bún, Vietnamese rice noodles (vermecelli), with rau, various leafy greens and vegetables as well as a bowl of nước mắm, fish sauce and vinegar. We were both expecting something already rolled with meat inside so we were very confused. Anna started making wraps with the bún and vegetables and started eating the nước mắm like soup! A short while later the waiter brought out Anna's actual dishand all was well. It turned out that what we thought was the meal were just condiments.

Anna and her attempt at a spring roll

Her actual dish

Hôm nay là ngày thừ nhất của tôi ở Việt Nam và tôi rất thích. Sáng nay tôi gặp Alyce, giám đốc của chương trình CET. Chị ấy là người Việt Nam-Mỹ. Chị nói về Việt Nam và chương trình này. Mỗi cuối tuần chúng tôi và bạn cùng phòng của chúng tôi sẽ đi nhiều nơi gần Saigon và một chuyến xa đến Huê và Hà Nội. Nếu tôi muốn đi một nơi gần Saigon thì tôi có thể dề nghị hoạt động và cả lớp sẽ đi. Alyce cũng nói về ngủy hiểm của Việt Nam như xe nhanh và trò lừa đảo.

Sau khi đó chúng tôi đi bộ và xem nhiều nơi nói tiếng ở Saigon. Chung tôi xem Notre Dame, "Diamond Plaza," và một chợ lớn nói tiếng. Tôi tập qua đường và bây giờ tôi thấy qua đường vui lắm! Trời ấm và ẩm và tôi chưa quen trời này nên tôi vui khi chung tá có ăn trưa ở một hiệu ăn với máy lạnh.

Bây giờ em phải đi ngủ tại vì ngày mai chúng tôi sẽ gập Alyce để nói về lớp học ký này. Xin lỗi, tôi biết tôi không viết đủ bằng tiếng Việt. Bây giờ viết bằng tiếng Việt vẫn mất lâu lắm nhưng tôi hy vọng tôi sắp viết bằng tiếng Việt nhanh hơn và giỏi hơn.

Arrival

It is 5am in Ho Chi Minh City and I am awake. This is partially due to my jet lag, partially due to the rooster that has been cock-a-doodling outside my room for the past 45 minutes. In any case, this seemed like a good chance to update everyone on my trip and my first few hours in Vietnam. I apologize if I am becoming one of those people who gives every little detail of their life. However, at this point, every small thing is very exciting to me.

I left from Detroit Thursday afternoon to fly into Tokyo. The flight was very, very long, but not too terrible. I got a bulkhead seat with no one sitting to my right so it was easy to sleep. On my left was a very sweet Thai couple who I had some very pleasant discussions with. The Tokyo airport, which for some reason I had been fantasizing about, was actually not terribly exciting. Since my flight from Detroit arrived a little late I just walked directly to my next flight, only stopping at the less disappointing, tricked out bathrooms.

The flight to Vietnam was very interesting. As I walked onto the plane, I realized that I was the only white person on board other than the pilot. This wasn't a bad thing but it was an interesting experience for me. I know many people routinely feel this way so it was interesting to see that perspective. On the plane, there were quite a few people wearing masks but strangely, no one seemed that concerned with wearing their mask all the time. It seemed like they kind of took them on and off when they felt like it so I wasn't entirely sure what the point of the masks were. Indeed, when we landed, almost all the officials were wearing them, but many just had them hanging from their ears, not actually covering their nose and mouth. I suppose this is a good example of effective/ineffective policy implementation in public health.

I arrived in HCMC close to midnight but fortunately I was able to find Hue, the person who was picking me up from the program, quite easily. He is a student at the Ho Chi Minh City school of economics and will be an aide for our program. His English is excellent but he was nice enough to help me practice my Vietnamese conversation skills for a bit. I was very worried about my Vietnamese at this point because the woman sitting next to me on the flight to HCMC had a very hard time understanding my Vietnamese but he was able to understand me much better so I felt a bit relieved. We took a cab to my guesthouse which was a very exciting experience. Though the traffic was not terrible at midnight, I still got an idea of how fast paced city life was as cars, motorbikes, and bicycles weaved in and out of each other, miraculously without incident. It was neat to see, even so late at night, that there were such a wide variety of people out and about on the streets. I saw young men on motorbikes, teenage couples, old women in conical hats, and two girls who looked to be about 12 pedaling a bicycle, one on the handlebars.

We arrived at my guesthouse and I got settled in. It seems like the location is very nice. It looks like a very safe area of the city and it is right across the street from my classes. I even felt a little homesick for Cayuga Lodge as I observed all the bats flying around outside. The student who was helping me gave me a key and told me that I could keep the key myself or that I could keep the key with one of the men who worked at the apartment complex with the note, "The other girls wanted to keep their keys because the man is usually drunk." I suppose that settles that... My room is really nice. Though small, in some ways it is nicer than the dorms that I have had at Cornell. There is a TV, refrigerator, a watercooler, air conditioning, and my own bathroom. My roommate will arrive tomorrow. Apparently this is her second year participating in the CET program and she attends Hong Bang University. I am very excited to meet her.


Now that it is finally getting light outside and the rooster seems to have quieted down a bit, I should start getting ready for my morning meeting with the program director. Orientation is today and tomorrow and classes start on Monday. Monday I also meet with the director of the Little Rose Shelter to come up with a work schedule for me and determine what type of work I will be doing at the shelter. Maybe I can even find a good place for some Vietnamese iced coffee...

Tôi rất mệt nhưng tôi sẽ viết ít về chuyến của tôi bằng tiếng Việt. Bây giờ tôi ở Việt Nam và tôi rất thích. Saigon hay và đẹp lắm. Hôm nay tôi, các sinh viện khác, và giám đốc của chương trình đi bộ. Tôi sẽ viết về đi bộ này lấn sau, có lẽ ngày mai. Bây giờ tôi phải đi ngủ một tiến nên tôi có thể tăm dò và đi mua hàng chiều này. Tôi sắp viết!

The final countdown

I leave for Vietnam in two days and I thought that it was time for a blog update. I am home in East Lansing for a week and am frantically trying to complete all the necessary preparations for Vietnam and say goodbye to all the people that I didn't see all summer and won't see for at least a semester. Yesterday I got my travelers cheques, bought clothes, an adaptor, bug spray, etc. It can be quite challenging to pack light and be prepared for any situation. I suppose the answer is that you can never be prepared for all situations.

In other news, I've learned more about the specifics of my program. There will be three students in total, all from different colleges. It's funny to think that while my peers at Cornell will all be in 200 person plus lecture halls I will have class sizes of 1-3 people. I also learned a little bit more about the volunteer project that I will be working on in Vietnam. I will be doing an internship at The Little Rose Shelter in Ho Chi Minh City. This is a home for women aged 12-18 who have been victims of or are at risk for sexual exploitation. The home was started as a response to Vietnam's problems with sex trafficking and the growing prevalence of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases in Southeast Asia. The Shelter provides free health care, psychological counseling, vocational classes, and sexual health education. This should be a great experience for me to learn more about public health/international health programs.

I am very excited and nervous. The next time I write will be from Vietnam!

Tôi sẽ đi Việt Nam thứ Năm! Tôi đang ở East Lansing từ một tuần và muốn chuẩn bị và gặp các bạn của tôi tại vì sau khi tôi về Mỹ tôi mới gặp họ. Hôm qua tôi đi mua hàng và đi ngân hành để có séc du lịch. Tôi muốn chuẩn bị nhưng có lễ tôi không thể chuẩn bị dủ được.

Bây giờ, tôi biết nhiều hơn thông tin về chương trình ở Việt Nam. Chương trình của tôi chỉ có ba người thôi. Một người sinh viện học ở trường Carleton và một người sinh viện học ở trương bang Washington. Khi tôi ở Việt Nam tôi sẽ làm việc ở Mai Am Hoa Hồng Nhỏ ở TPHCM. Mai Am Hoa Hồng Nhỏ là nhà giúp người nữ trẻ, tuổi 12-18, ai lâm vào cảnh nguy hiểm (tôi không biết giải thích chương trình này bằng tiếng Việt). Tôi hy vọng tôi sẽ biết về sức khoẻ và tập nói tiếng Việt.

Tôi sắp viết từ Việt Nam!