As the title of this post would suggest, there are indeed pictures in this post. But first, a bit about what I have been up to. I am still taking Vietnamese language classes and if I say so myself, I am getting pretty good! We are going to be filmed learning Vietnamese by a local news station this week which will be terribly embarassing because we still don't know enough to make good news. We learned how to order food today. I would have thought that that would be in the first week because it is pretty fundamental to living without a kitchen but it has worked out. Then at lunch we tried to order in Vietnamese and the waitress laughed at us but then corrected our pronunciation so hopefully we will do better next time.
Lily and I went to pick up our ao dai today but they were not ready. They material we had picked out was no longer available (they have the material in another location where they sew the dresses I guess). So we picked out new fabric and they will be ready on Monday. Pictures will follow; I am so excited about this!
We went to a Cao Dai temple and Cu Chi tunnels last Saturday. The Cao Dai temple was beautiful! We went to see the worship ceremony at noon and it was really impressive. There were so many people praying in the ceremony! The building was really colorful and gorgeous. Apparantly, God gave them instuctions on how to construct the temple in the 1920s when the religion was founded. They have only three saints: Victor Hugo is one of them. This seems strange as Victor Hugo had nothing to do with this religion at all. But Cai Daiism is completely unique to Vietnam.
The Cu Chi tunnels were really interesting. The local people in this region called Cu Chi played a big role in fighting the Americans in the Vietnam War. Their villages were being bombed and so they dug this tunnel system in which they could all live for up to 12 days at a time. These tunnels allowed them to disappear in a moment during a fight and hide and otherwise mess up the American offense. The tunnels themselves were tiny though. We went through a short segment and we had to crouch down and we still barely fit. But they had been expanded to almost twice their original size. Veitnamese people are smaller but that is still incredible! Our guide through this area was telling us about an experience he had a couple of years ago when a mother of one American soldier came to visit the tunnels. Her son was killed in this region during the war. They had a memorial service for this soldier and all his fallen compatriots. Both this mother and the guide started apologizing for what happened during the war and crying. It was so emotional that the guide started crying as he told us the story.
Everyone I have met so far in this country has been so nice to us! The one exception was a man we talked to at dinner a few days ago. He was talking about us before he talked to us, saying things like, "Oh looks like the sorority moved in next to us. Wonder what they're here for." Then he turns to us and says, "I am very sorry to interupt your dinner but I was wondering what you all are doing in Vietnam?" So we told him we are here studying on a term abroad and we are from America. His response: "Oh so you all are from snooty liberal arts colleges?" One of my friends tried to make a sort of joke out of his blatant rudeness and said "Oh I don't think we can talk to you anymore because you called us snooty." And his retort was, "Let me guess you voted for Hilary didn't you?" Like because we did not want to be insulted to our faces by this man who was so clearly an idiot, we must be some kind of crazy feminists. I do not get angry very easily but I kind of wanted to slap this guy. Didn't. But the conversation went downhill quickly and ended shortly afterward. Luckily, he was from New York City so the Vietnamese record is still clean.
As promised, here are some photos of Ho Chi Minh City. These photos were taken for my photo class so hopefully you will find them to be interesting, good photos.
My face is just always shiney here because it is so hot and humid. Deal with it. I do. : ) This is my friend Lily and me at a rooftop restaurant.
The traffic in this city is ridiculous but apparently is worse in Hanoi. Everybody drives a motorbike here. There would be no room to move if they all switched to cars. But they are all crazy drivers and the traffic lights are more like suggestions. I am very careful crossing the street.
This was in the touristy center of town and motorbike drivers like these harass passersby (especially very pale, Anglo passerby) to take rides in their taxis. "Good morning. Where you going? Motorbike?" It was quaint at first but got old quickly.
Really, all of the telephone wires look like this here. I think it is such a mess because the city got cell phones and internet and such really quickly and so wires just got put where they fit without much of a master plan. Also, the wires seem too low to me but Vietnamese people as a whole are much shorter than Americans so it doesn't matter as much to them but I have to be vigilant not to be hit in the face by low hanging wires. Also, when it rains (which is often) street vendors put out tarps to keep dry and the strings are right at American-height eye level. Mild dangers ready to snare unsuspecting American girls.
There is a sort of perpetual costruction project going on here right now. Almost all the sidewalks are ripped up/ in the process of being re-done. This was some sort of project they were doing in an empty lot. I included it here for you all to see because I just like the photo, I don't know why.
This is a view of the city at night from that rooftop restaurant we went to. Really we went for this view. All of the little dashes are motorbikes.
I will write again soon. Thanks for sticking it out through this extensive blog post. I hope you found it worth the length.
love to you all,
Maggie
