The Warmest Welcome!

• What a busy, exciting and fulfilling first day! We just got back to the hotel about an hour ago and everyone had some free time to pull out cash from the atms, buy water, and (most importantly) shower! I can officially confirm it is very, very hot and humid here. Anyway, today was a busy day but I feel so welcomed into this country by the UEF students and I’m extremely excited to see what the next two weeks has in store. To start our day we had a complimentary hotel breakfast which was interesting breakfast foods, yet surprisingly delicious. Next was our fantastic welcome by the students and staff of UEF! They met us as we were coming off the bus and they had signs and necklaces full of flowers for all of us. We proceeded up to the auditorium of the UEF building in central Ho Chi Minh city where there was an entire welcoming ceremony. It was full of songs, dances, gifts and games to get to know everyone. I ended up getting proposed to on stage as a part of a dare for one of the UEF students. My girlfriend Karley will be happy to know though that the wedding got called off. After the entire ceremony we got fitted for custom tailored suits for a steal of a price and then we had our first introductory language class followed by lunch. The final part of our morning was a half bus half walking tour of the city. I was excited to see many of the historical sites that our tour guide took us to see, including the post office built by Alexander Eiffel, the same man to build the Eiffel Tower! It was also very obvious that Vietnam is a continuously developing country as we could see new construction all over the city. Anyway, up next is dinner and I’ll write it in after!

• So here is my post dinner blog update. The restaurant was gorgeous and the food was very traditional Vietnamese cuisine, which is still growing on me. The multiple courses of entirely new types of food were intriguing yet also slightly overwhelming. Of course I tried all of the food like I promised myself I would and so far I have no regrets (stay tuned for updates on that).  All of the food was good but nothing entirely stood out as delicious just yet. Still excited to try more new foods though! Like earlier today a few of us tried a fried chicken head from a street vendor! Sorry if that grosses anyone out (sorry mom)!

• To finish out my required prompt for this blog, no major differences from our Culture Smart book have occurred to me just yet but I will keep that in mind as we continue our experiences here in Vietnam! Until next time,

– Danny