Wed, Sept 10
Wow!!! My First day in Vietnam. I had quite an experience . It started out with a nice hot bowl of Pho. A soup of rice noodles and broth. I choose beef but you could get chicken. As an appetizer we had something that looked like do treats but they had nuts in the inside and a whiter covering on the outside. Tasted like peanut brittle. YUM YUM YUM!!!!! I also tried some mooncake it tasted like spice cake it wasn’t very good. I then tried some banana pancake it was like a crepe wrapped around a slice of a banana with a black sweet syrup drizzled on top. It was very good. Then for the best part Pho. It was steaming hot and very good. That was my favorite part. I‘m going to have for breakfast this morning. For drink we had lemon drink its lemon squeezed in hot water with ice cubes and a tablespoon of sugar in it. My favorite drink. After breakfast we went street walking. The cool thing about it was the was what they were selling on the street. Each different street sells the same item. I learned that it was okay to say no!! One time this man came up to me and took of my shoe and started mending it I didn't know what to do so I let him. He then charged $10 dollars. We gave him $2 and told him to ask next time. I also learned that when you buy something you always want to offer 10%-20% lower, because the often don’t have a set price. Many Vietnamese will take advantage of Americans, because they think Americans are always rich. You also don’t want wear any thing on your back, because they could cut the straps of and steal it. You want to make sure you have a hand on it. My country is very interesting and unique.
Thurs, Sept 11
Today we went to the biggest wholesale market in Ha Noi. We had to keep our hand on our purses because there are pick-pocketers there. There are thousands of small booths, but many of them were repeats of each other, so there is a lot of competition. The items include: baby items, material, shoes, clothes, hair accessories, and many different types of souvenirs. Behind the market, after it closes are people from the country selling food. We did not buy anything, but took a lot of pictures of items we liked so that Perfume, our homestay provider, can buy it for us cheaper.
Fri, Sept 12
The weather is very humid out here in Vietnam. It's more humid at night then it is in the day. Today I went on a food tour. It took 4 hours. We would walk around to certain places our guide took us to and try different foods. I tried a silkworm, It was very interesting but not my favorite. We also had a barbecue were we had steak,chicken, and pork on sticks, that's when I tried duck tongue and frog legs . For dessert we had a mix of tropical fruits like dragonfruit, avocado, cantaloupe,watermelon, coconut, Asian pear,and many other foreign tropical fruits mixed in coconut condensed milk and ice. We finished up with egg coffee. Egg and a little bit of sugar beat up really good and added to black coffee served with a drizzle of chocolate syrup. I had freshly squeezed orange juice with water and sugar,but a did have a sip of egg coffee. It was good, but I don't like coffee.
Sat, Sept 13
"Sin-chow", as Vietnamese would say. Today, September 13, I went to my orphanage, An Ti. It was about 2 1/2 hours to get there. It was by the countryside. There was a big gate gate in front and it was locked. The orphanage wasn't just a orphanage it was also a handicapped place. It wasn't to sanitary and was infested with flies. There was about 8 doors on each side and there was three sides. We started handing out candy and second hand clothes to the people. There were two babies there and other than that the youngest was about 3 or 4 years old. She was blind, other than that there were about 4 eight-nine year old boys. The rest were adults that were mentally handicapped, except one who was physically handicapped and couldn’t work out on the streets but who loved to talk to us. The girls loved the clothes and immediately started putting of them on top of of their other clothes. They would have 3 shirts on at once, It was quite funny. Many of the middle-age girls couldn't speak, but they were smiling when we gave them the clothes. We didn't give clothes or candy to the Directors to hand out later because they wouldn't give them to the residents. They would just sell it and keep the money to themselves. That's why we gave them second hand clothes instead of new clothes. Even then we don't know if they will get to keep them. We even had to pay to see the people and kids, and of course that money went to the directors. The residents said to our van driver, "Please take me with you, They don't feed us, make us work on the farm, and they hit (beat) us." As you should all know I am very blest to be adopted and that trip made it even more clear. If you have any questions feel free to ask.
Sun, Sept 14
To answer the question, "Is it humid like what we're used to?" No, it is a lot worse. When I step out of my hotel room it feels like you stepped into a very steaming bathroom. In the hotel, we only have air conditioning when we put our key in the slot. Many Vietnamese women wear a long covering on their body like you see in these pictures. (these are not pictures we took but we see tons of this.) Many men I see have their shirts off or wearing short sleeves, although there are lots of hotels there and the men and women were long sleeve uniforms. There winter is still hot, but their skin isn't used to it being so "cold." When my parents adopted James in the winter, they would be in their short sleeves and the Vietnamese would be having heavy coats on and all bundled up.
Today we are going swimming. I'll write later how it goes!
Feel free to ask any questions!!
~ Joy
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