Good morning, Vietnam! And a very early morning it was. Well, not really, but getting to the hotel at midnight made 8 am feel much earlier. I don’t feel like doing the math to calculate how many hours we spent traveling as a group, and whatever that number is add 12 hours for the time it took me to get from San Antonio to Pittsburgh. After we’ll call it 40 ish hours of travel and not nearly enough sleep, we started our first real day in Vietnam!

It was off to a good start with immediate near culture shock at breakfast. In hotels in the U.S., one typically sees a spread of fruit, toast and bagels, eggs, sausage and/or bacon, yogurt, and maybe pancakes or waffles. But in Vietnam, they start their day strong with a bowl of pho, several types of eggs, and a few kinds of meat, in addition to some toast and fruits. Unfortunately, I wasn’t brave enough to have anything other than a piece of toast and some fruit this morning, but maybe I’ll try something new tomorrow. On the topic of food, we were graciously served a traditional Vietnamese lunch and dinner at two different but equally beautiful and tasty restaurants. Instead of one or two courses, maybe three with dessert, like what’s typical in the states, the waitstaff continuously set plates in the center of the table, reaching probably 6 courses plus a fruit and soup for dessert. I knew there was going to be a lot of seafood and rice, but I didn’t expect there to be a vegetable with almost every meal and I definitely didn’t expect red or green bean soup for dessert!

After lunch we went to the UEF (University of Economics and Finance) building, where we were greeted with incredibly welcoming arms, lots of photographers/videographers, and basically a red carpet entrance. I genuinely felt like a celebrity. We took lots of group pictures with the staff, UEF students, and each other, before having the official welcome ceremonies. We got to hear a band play a Vietnamese rock song live, which was incredible, and I loved seeing the different instruments and the influences of Western music culture. At one point, us Pitt students were all welcomed on stage to receive a teddy bear and take more photos as a welcome gift! Then, later, we were welcomed back to spontaneously learn and then perform a dance to a pop song, which was a ton of fun. The UEF students and staff were all super excited to have us join and it was an incredible official welcome to the country! I was able to meet a lot of UEF students too, one of which studied abroad in Indiana 8 years ago!!

I think the fact that this program even exists is a great example of proof that Vietnam is rapidly globalizing. This bond between our universities and this travel experience allows for us to learn about each other’s countries, and a lot of the UEF students that I met were studying international business/relations, so maybe I’ll see them again in the business world one day! The campus building itself, so modern and with so many disciplines, was awesome to see.

Then, we went on a hop on, hop off city bus tour with some of the UEF students. A lot of them said it was their first time on the tour as well, but they were still pointing out landmarks and buildings, of course. Honestly, the contrast in architecture was very shocking to me and something that the culture smart book didn’t cover much of. On one hand, you have the typical Vietnamese street that makes it evident that Vietnam hasn’t been fully developed or industrialized for very long, because the buildings are covered in graffiti, and they almost all had underground garages where the dumpsters were placed, but that meant that a lot of trash overflowed onto the street. However, during the tour, we were able to see some extremely modern “city” buildings: tall, sleek, and covered in windows. We even saw the building that Tony Stark lived in, in the Avengers movie! I know every city has different neighborhoods or boroughs that have different cultural aspects highlighted, but the immediate and stark contrast from almost one street to the next was shocking!

Although I was exhausted and jet lagged, I really enjoyed day 1! The UEF students were so kind and welcoming (pictured is us taking the elevator up to the little theatre for the welcome ceremonies) and I learned so much already about the food, culture, environment, and how to learn chopsticks (kind of)! I can’t wait for day 2!!