Today in lecture we learned more about the symbolism of odd and even numbers. The lecturer also talked about how the structure of the meal reflects the natural environment (i.e. majority of the food here is seafood based). In the PowerPoint there were pictures of traditional meals from the North, Central and the Southern point of Vietnam and on one slide there was a picture of these 2 animals laying on a grill; come to realize that they were DOGS. (Ugh, that threw me through a loop. So sad. :[ ). We also talked about the traditional clothing for women called Ao Dai, which is a long sleeved dress with silky pants underneath. During this time, my Vietnamese friend asked me about USA's traditional dress and food and I was like "oh it's....", then I realized that we don't have anything like that. The only things that came to mind were daisy dukes and hot dogs/hamburgers. This is kinda sad. Language class was good. We learned how to say phrases like "It's so hot" and "that's so beautiful!". (Some of the phrases we already knew because Tin kept calling the boys on the trip ugly and naughty :] )
Next we headed to the usual lunch spot. This is something that I will not miss THAT much when I am back in the states. Though the food is good, the flies were waaaay to ridiculous and it started to skeeve me out, a lot. After lunch we headed over to Navibank. It was nice to see that all of the people in charge of giving the presentation were women. This was refreshing considering Vietnam business people are dominantly male. It was a little challenging listening to the presentation because the presenter spoke 0 English so our buddy from UEF had to translate. They had a lot of similar services to the US, like online banking and things of that nature. They also gave us these delicious mini cake things with custard inside and caramel hard candies. (Free food: score)
After the bank we headed back to the hotel. Around 6:30 Ha picked up Jeff and I and we went to her house!! It was really cute. Her mom and sister are very kind. They have nice view from their cute little balcony roof thinggy. Chi met us at Ha's house and the four of us went to Anh's house for dinner. Anh's entire family was there (and when I say entire, I mean ENTIRE) because they were celebrating the death of one of her uncles that passed away. I felt very honored that she invited me to her house for this! Her house is beautiful!! It's weird because she has 4 floors but there are only 2 rooms on each floor. In Vietnam, they build really thin, tall houses. We ate dinner on her roof that over looked the neighborhood. THE FOOD WAS DELICIOUS!! Hands down the best food I've had here. There was sooo much too!! They even brought out live shrimp and cooked them right in front of us!!! Her family was very polite and sweet. It was really fun!!!
They dropped us back off at the hotel around 10:30 PM and I was exhausted!! However, I heared the door bell ringing hysterically and I looked out and saw Julia on the other side. She and the rest of the Pitt people were heading to Lush for ladies night. I didn't want to go but Julia put up a really good argument so I tagged along. It was nothing spectacular. (We did get in trouble though because girls get free drinks and only we were allowed to drink them but they saw me giving them the boys since I don't drink. Whoops.) Some of us left around 12:00 and we were back to the hotel by 12:30 AM.
So yeah!! I can't believe how quick this week is flying by!! I will be home sooner then you know it!!
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