Today was another rough day. I woke up feeling even worse then I did yesterday. (I was also still a little upset from last night's events). Nonetheless, I realized that I only have 2 days left here so I want to make the most of it!! Carly and I did the usual breakfast. (It was really tasty and fun when we first got here [and it still is don't get me wrong] but I could really go for a piece of french toast right now as opposed to dinner for breakfast haha).
We boarded the bus at 8:15 for our last lecture and class at UEF. (I can't believe how quick it flew by!) To be honest it was a little difficult for me to focus and concentrate on the lecture when my 800+ pictures were floating around in digital heaven. We learned about the different religions in Vietnam and how they were introduced. We also talked about how and why the buildings and pagodas were constructed the way that they are. After lecture we had our final language class, where we had a TEST. The teacher pointed to different pictures of people and we had to use the proper pronoun for greeting them. Then she pointed to numbers and we had to say them in Vietnamese; we had to have a conversation with at least 3 questions and then that we had to give a mini speech in front of the class. (No big deal -_-). The teacher put us into pairs and we had an odd number of Pitt students so I was paired with Hong Kong (a UEF student). Luckily he spoke very slow so I could partially understand what he said when he spoke in Vietnamese. I did HORRIBLE. He told me that I was not bad but I know for a fact that I spoke a combination of English, Spanish and my version of Vietnamese. We then went to lunch at the usual place for the FINAL TIME! I think it was the best lunch there yet but like I mentioned before, I will not miss the flies.
After lunch we went to the War Remnants Museum. This was hard to walk through. Out front of the museum are a couple planes and tanks that the Vietnamese captured from USA. They were massive. I can't imagine looking out the window of my house and seeing these giant tanks rolling down the street. On the first floor, it was fairly neutral and provided historical information about the war. There was also an exhibit that portrayed the war through the eyes of Vietnamese children. This was sad to see them living in the Cu Chi Tunnels and going to school in fear.
As you went up to different levels of the museum the anti-America propaganda increased. A part that stuck out to me was that they would take quotes from the Declaration of Independence like "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness", put them in large font on the wall and then had a bunch of pictures surrounding it of Americans killing Vietnamese people. They were trying to contradict the quote with these graphic photos which I did not like. There was also an exhibit about Agent Orange and the deformities that it causes. That was definitely hard to see. I think there should have been a disclaimer at the door of the exhibit saying that graphic photos lay ahead. I totally bypassed one portion of the museum that had pictures of gory bodies all over the wall. However, I did appreciate the opportunity to see something like this.
After this, 6 or 7 of us headed off to the market (again). My bargaining was on point today. I was able to talk a woman down from 200,000 dong to 60,000. I was pretty proud of myself. We then went to the post office again which has cute little shops in there for souvenirs Once we got back to the hotel 13 of us got all dolled up and headed to the Rex Hotel. This is a very high end, five star, classy hotel in Ho Chi Minh City that has a roof top restaurant. This was gorgeous... and expensive! You could see the whole city and the beautifully lit skyscrapers (Dr. Berman even joined us for dinner which was nice!) The music choice was a little odd though; they basically played the Adele CD with hardcore rap thrown in between. Around 8:30 PM a live band started to play jazzy music and they were really good!!
Jeff and I were invited to this acoustic bar coffee shop thing so we left dinner early and met 8 or 9 UEF students at the hotel and then went to Acoustic. This was hilarious. There was a Phillipino cover rock band that did a bunch of old school rock music. (I was not expecting a scremo version of sweet dreams though) After they performed they had a house band where singers would perform a song or two. There was a really good person that performed and apparently he appeared on Vietnam's version of the Voice (a twist here was that he is blind!). We got back to the hotel around midnight and Jeff, Julia, D and I hung out for a bit before they went home. All and all it was a really nice day!!! I can't believe that I only have one day left! Its gonna be a sad day tomorrow, I can already tell.
P.S. CAMERA UPDATE: Anh was able to recover ALL of my pictures!!! I am beyond excited!!! I can't wait to show them off :D
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