Xin Chào: Welcome to the Chaos of Ho Chi Minh City

I forgot to mention in my last post that we also met our lovely Vietnamese guide Trân. So this morning was an early morning made even more difficult by the fact that we had slept very little in the past three days and our bodies were still on Pittsburgh time. I woke up at 7:45 am after a very restless sleep. The mattresses are not the most soft and forgiving mattresses in the world. After Eric and Elliott had finished showering and getting ready. We headed down to get breakfast.

Sidenote before I tell a quick story: It is respectful to pass and receive things with two hands (i.e. business cards, papers, tickets, pens, etc…). We had learned this before and were told this many times.

When the three of us walked into the restaurant, we were asked for our free breakfast tickets. For some reason the whole pass things with two hands ritual slipped our minds. We handed the host our tickets with one hand and I’m sure we looked like the typical disrespectful Westerners… oops. Anyway, the breakfast was not as I expected. There was your stereotypical American Chinese food with a Vietnamese twist. I had beef and potatoes in a soy-like sauce, fried rice, dumplings, bananas, and some toast. A very diverse meal, I know. The highlight of breakfast was absolutely the fruit drinks. I fell in love with the passion fruit drink. It is so good! When we all finished breakfast, we got into the van to head to UEF for the first time. This would also be our first time traveling the streets of Ho Chi Minh in the daylight. I could not wait to see the chaos.

I’m going to try to describe an average street to you but I will not even do it justice. Hopefully my pictures will paint a better picture.  The sight was everything I expected and more. Literally, the Vietnamese have no regard for traffic laws and safety. The motorbikes dodge in and out of traffic coming mere inches from disaster. The motorbikes form a giant swarm that fill in any open space that the very few cars do not take up. We saw motorbikes we two, three, and sometimes even four people. They carried the most ridiculous things on the motorbikes too. We saw ladders, giant metal poles probably three times longer than the motorbike. People carried huge boxes and metal crates. I have NO idea how they managed to not only dodge traffic, but not drop the things they were carrying. That was just the streets. The sidewalks are almost as hectic. People are just straight-up chilling EVERYWHERE. They have their shopcarts stopped in the middle of the sidewalk without the slightest regard for pedestrians.

So we were headed to the University of Economics and Finance for the welcoming ceremony. When the van arrived, there was a man following us videotaping our every move. Apparently we were going to be on TV! We chose seats in the room and met and introduced ourselves to Vietnamese students from UEF. After we had gotten to know some of the kids, we were given a bunch of presentations and power points from people of importance at UEF. The students had prepared a puppet show and a few songs for us. They actually sounded much better than One Direction. After the welcome ceremony had ended and we exchanged gifts with them, we headed to our first language class. I was ready to embarrass myself. I sat next to two of my Vietnamese friends and they tried to help me even though I was convinced it was futile. Vietnamese is a tonal language which means it relies on fluctuations in your voice to convey what you’re trying to say. This makes it very difficult for Americans to pick up. In this class, our teacher taught us the many ways to introduce ourselves and to ask others what their name is. She taught us how to ask “how much does this cost?” and how to say please, excuse me, and sorry. In order to do this and show us how to pronounce each inflection she would move her hand as she taught us. This made it easier but I am confident that I still thoroughly embarrassed myself. After language class we headed back to the hotel for a much needed nap before we headed to the U.S. Consulate in Ho Chi Minh.

At the U.S. Consulate, we met three American employees there. They first took us to a conference room and told us all about Vietnam. They talked about the politics, the economics and even the social life. They also talked about the United States’ relationship with Vietnam and how it has changed since the war. It is pretty amazing to think just how connected and close the two countries are despite the fact that they just recently fought a war on opposite sides. The employees talked to us about the history of the U.S. Consulate in Vietnam and what they do. They then took us on a tour of the grounds. They showed us the original flag post from when it was the U.S. Embassy before the war. They also took us to the plaque commemorating those who died defending the embassy from the Vietcong during the Tet Offensive. Many famous pictures from the Vietnam War took place at the U.S. embassy.  

After leaving the embassy and returning to the hotel, it’s safe to say that most of us are once again exhausted. However, we decided to venture out of the hotel and explore a little. We went to the local supermarket and bought some snacks and drinks. We came back to the hotel and were taken to dinner at Wrap and Roll, a local Vietnamese chain restaurant. The food was interesting. My favorites were the pork rolls and the beef rolls. However Tran did make me eat many of the different things they served. The food seemed to be unending, they kept bringing more and more. But I didn’t mind because I spent most of dinner, along with some other people, talking to Tran and getting to know her and the Vietnamese culture better. It was so interesting! After sufficiently stuffing our faces at dinner, we headed back to the hotel. We decided to stay in tonight and hang out in our rooms. Then it was bedtime as we prepared for another early morning.