My fellow peers will be writing about their day trip to the Mekong, but I couldn’t go, so this is what I did instead.

Today is the second part of getting sick and recovering in Vietnam. I started the morning by sleeping in (because I wasn’t going to the Mekong Delta). Followed by a cream cheese bagel and bacon egg bagel ordered from the Grab app. The bagels were a fine breakfast, which nicely contrasted the hotel offering which I have eaten for the entirety of my trip. The bagels were a little chewy but nicely toasted on the outside. I figure Vietnam might be lacking some of the technical expertise and years of experience that the bagels that I am used to back home are prepared with. After breakfast, I conferred over text with Ethan, one of our UEF contacts, to discuss how I would obtain a pair of prescription glasses. I learned that Ethan would be coming with me today, which is a relief considering I don’t speak Vietnamese and having him present avoids much Google translating/hand gesturing. So, at about 11:30, I and Ethan took a taxi to an optometrist (who happened to be on the same block as the Japanese International clinic) to get some glasses made. The night before at 8pm (9am Pittsburgh time) I had already called my Pitt optometrist and gotten my prescription emailed over, so there was no hassle with getting my eyes checked out. The process at the optometrist was fairly painless, thanks to Ethan, with me selecting my frames and paying about 80 USD. This price seemed reasonable considering my last pair probably cost five times that sum. The optometrist told me the glasses would be ready the same day (definitely faster than in America) and we headed out to lunch. For lunch, we got some delicious pho. This beef pho is without a doubt the best I have had in my life. Ethan gave it a 9/10. After a delicious lunch, we returned to my hotel, where I have been since. As of writing, I am still eagerly waiting on my glasses, but assume they will be ready shortly. The optometrist is open til 9:30pm so there is time for them to be done tonight. I think for dinner I will be going out for some delectable snail, rat, and frog. Several things that I’ve heard were good in Vietnam (thanks Andrew Zimmer), but have yet to ever try. This day went very easily with contacts from both UEF and Pitt reaching out to keep in the know my well-being. I’ve had worse days in Vietnam. The heat was pretty tolerable sitting in my air-conditioned hotel room. Hopefully, I’ll be back to normal trip activities tomorrow.