We started and ended our day in Vietnam today! When I mean started, I mean Monday, May 5th, at around 12 am, we arrived in Vietnam . It was a busy day. We woke up at around eight to get our breakfast, because it ended at 9 am. It was interesting, because breakfast wasn’t the same as an American breakfast. Vietnamese breakfast consisted of food that wasn’t very different from lunch or dinner food. The hotel provided a breakfast composed of noodles, green bean rice, dumplings, a variety of unique fruit, and more. After eating our meal, one of my friends and I were talking about how natural this meal tasted. It didn’t make us feel gross after eating. Even the orange juice tasted different with its light flavor, which made it feel healthier in a way, because there seemed to be a minimal amount of sugar in it.
As a result, I started thinking about the contrasts in American culture verses Vietnamese culture and how they’re different due to influence from other countries. Being in Vietnam, I can definitely see the influence that China and France had over Vietnam during their time of colonization in the architecture and flavors found within the food.
The architecture was so interesting, because the French influence of some of the buildings looked similar to that found in New Orleans, which is also known for its French influence. I could also see the Chinese influence on architecture from seeing other buildings in the city.
There’s definitely noticeable signs of Vietnam becoming an up-and-coming country that’s increasing its development and globalization, because the city is constantly undergoing construction and expansion-I saw during my tour of Ho Chi Min City with the University of Economics and Finance, a school located in Vietnam that this program collaborates with extensively. I also noticed that the majority of the people I saw walking on the street were Vietnamese, but when we were going on the tour and stopped at the Walking Street, I saw that there were some tourists from other countries.
One thing that the Culture Smart book that we read before coming to Vietnam didn’t prepare me for was the heat. I looked on the weather app before coming here and knew that it was going to be hot, however it turned out to be way hotter than I expected. The humidity made the weather so much hotter. It was interesting to see, though, how the people here have adapted to this heat. Some of the UEF students barely broke out in a sweat while wearing long sleeves and pants while we were on the tour of the city, while us Americans were sweating so much.
I forgot to take a picture of breakfast, but here’s the lunch we had. The spring rolls looked good -I couldn’t eat them because I’m allergic to shrimp, but everyone else seemed to enjoy them. The big plate in the middle was a jellyfish salad, and it was very delicious.