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!