Blog 11

The next day in Vietnam, I slept in a little bit more and awoke around 11:00AM. It was a slow moving day and I was still pretty tired. There was nothing on the agenda so far besides exploring the city and experiencing the culture. I ate lunch on the ship that day and spent the early afternoon deciding what to do. There was a group of kids who I was supposed to accompany to a resort-style location about 3 hours away from Saigon. Unfortunately, I did not return from the Cu Chi tunnels to catch the bus the night before. It would have been cool, but I'm sure I would have spent too much money. I decided to search for some internet activity from anywhere that I could find it. It was much tougher than I thought and I ended up unsuccessful for that day. So I paid another man on a motorbike to take me around so I could take more pictures of the city and all that surrounded it. I was trying to communicate that I wanted him to take me outside the city and snap a few urban shots so I kept saying "water" and "trees". The guy would always act like he knew what I was saying and take me somewhere interesting but not quite what I wanted. That was the day that I experienced the most smells. These smells had a very wide range and very few of them were good, though still very distinct and will always remind me of Vietnam.

After that journey, I returned back to the ship and found a group of friends who had dinner plans that evening so I decided to tag along. After a shower and a quick nap, I met my friends Aaron, Kim, Griffin, Chad, Lauren, Amanda, and Scott for dinner at a Japanese restaurant. I had another Tiger beer(love that beer), and a full Japanese meal complete with edamame, miso, and of course – rice. Since Griffin had pointed out on a map where the restaurant was, and the fact that I had been walking around the city a good amount, I decided to walk to the restaurant while everyone else took motorbikes. That was a mistake. The directions weren't exactly where they appeared to be on the map, and I ended up walking around the city for 20 minutes until I stumbled across a lost Kim with a rogue motor bike driver, and then we found the place together. It was some good and fun bonding time for the two of us on a lost adventure in Ho Chi Min City. After dinner, we dispersed while I took a walk back to the ship – where I got lost again, and the others went to the night market to get measured for their suits. The plan was to meet up in an hour back at the ship and we would go out. As it turns out, I came back to the ship and fell asleep cold as soon as I hit the bed, it was a long and hot day.

I was ultimately glad that I didn't go out and party that night because the next day I would wake up and get on a bus at 7:30AM. This bus was one of my FDP's for credit, which stands for Faculty Directed Practica. Think of them as field trips to supplement our classes. This particular FDP, I wasn't signed up for or required to do, but was optional for my Intercultural Communication class. I was going to a disabled children's school across town for the day. It took about an hour to get there and there were probably about 30 total SASers participating. This includes the faculty, the young children on the ship, and the lifelong learners. Once we got to the school, the kids could not be happier to us. We were instructed to go to a big room where we would be organized and divided amongst the classrooms. As we walked to the room, the kids were standing in doorways and peeking out of windows, waving and smiling at us.

The principal of the school addressed us with a translator and then we were released to interact with the children during their recess. The kids ran around, waved, jumped, and played with unbelievable energy. I felt very weird because I felt excited to see this kids and I usually am terrified of the thought of dealing with kids. Some people were playing hopscotch with the kids, some were tossing balls, and I was taking pictures and videos and showing them to the kids. They would come up to me and point to my camera and then point to themselves. Then they would runaway and return with a flower or a friend or dance for the camera. At the end of recess, the principal banged on a big drum and all the kids ran back into their classrooms with which we, as visitors, were divided up into. Me and Griffin ended up… I think… in the mentally handicapped classroom, because they couldn't figure out how to play tic-tac-toe or color in the lines, but it was great non-the-less. We made the kids some bracelets out of some string and beads that we brought for them. After a while in the class room, we were summoned to meet back up in the big room. We said goodbye to the kids and headed back to the room, we were thanked by the teachers and staff, and then boarded the bus once more.

After the ride back; the girl who lives across the hall, Bailey; her friend Tracy; Griffin and I, went to lunch at the spot that I had eaten at with our motorbike guide two nights before. It was just down the street and we had some more very good Vietnamese food. There were noodles, rice, and fried chicken, I was hoping that I wasn't ordering an American style dish with a Vietnamese spin on it, but it was damn good either way. On the way home, we stopped at one of the vendors to get a pineapple-mango type drink, it was downright delicious and it was about 20 cents. The girls were very iffy on the drinks because they contained ice and we were instructed by SAS to not drink the water or even drink anything with ice in it, but I assume SAS is just covering their ass in case of a liability. I ended up finishing the girl's drinks myself. Ya know how you can't finish something because you have a mental block, therefore it doesn't taste as good… Kinda like trying to eat a milk dudes after seeing rabbit shit. I'm thinkin' that's why the girls didn't finish theirs

Once again… exhausted, I used the afternoon to take a short nap and watch my New Family Guy DVD's. I awoke and had dinner on the ship and got ready for the last night in the country. The last night is always the biggest night. Everyone goes out on this night and a lot of SASers get obliteratingly drunk. Also the following day is the day when kids usually try to sneak alcohol on the boat for the long haul to the next port. My pike buddies from Chapman had got back from their Cambodian trip and I was planning on going out with them that evening. A big luxurious and foreigner hotel in the country is called the Rex Hotel, and the bar at the top was where we planned to spend the evening. We set off with a very large crew, and since to go through the names would mean nothing too you as the reader, I won't bore you. Our crew decided to drink cheaper, and it just so happened that public drinking is fully legal in the country, so we set off with two destinations, a convenience store and a park. We grabbed a few beers and found a park which seemed like the local middle school hangout… because there were kids on BMX bikes all over the place.

After feeling a little looser and getting to know each other better, we headed on down to Rex, where the bar was on the roof, about 10 stories high. The rest of that evening I spent dancing and attempting not to spend money on drinks for girls. I woke up the next morning pleased to see that I still a good amount of money in my wallet. I went back out in the morning and had enough time to pick up my suit, skype Mom and Dad, grab some cheap DVD's, and make it back in time for the on-ship time.