After a long travel time to get to Vietnam, we finally arrived!! After arriving in Vietnam we met up with the UEF students and I was amazed by their kindness and welcoming attitude towards us. They had us take lots of photos and threw a huge ceremony for us where they even had a Vietnamese band come up and play a song for us which was really cool. We also went up on stage and performed a Vietnamese TikTok dance which was really fun. Overall, they were extremely welcoming and friendly and I can’t wait to get to know them better.

After we attended the welcome ceremony, we had a Vietnamese dinner where we had squid, shrimp, mango, rice, fried rice, and egg rolls. Everything was brought out in sections and is placed in the middle for everyone to share. Coming from a family which always sticks to traditional American foods this was quite a shock to me. I did not realize the difference in diets between Asian and American culture was so severe. I also attempted to eat the entire meal with chopsticks and was mostly successful aside from the rice. My goal is to be proficient in using them by the end of the trip.

Additionally, the globalization of their society is increasingly apparent as a lot of the stores have English and Vietnamese written on their signs. This is further reinforced by the presence of American fast food chains such as Popeyes and McDonalds. However, not a lot of the people that I interacted with spoke English so there is also evidence that they have not been completely overrun by American and other foreign influences.