Today we went to the university and mostly had lectures all day, so this might not be the most intriguing blog post.
We had breakfast in the hotel to start, like we always do. Before we left, I tried to exchange some dollars for dong at the hotel but they said they were totally out! I left for the day with only 87,000 dong (about $3.75) although Nhu, my buddy, had said yesterday to bring $5-10.
When we got to the university we got to see a Vietnamese Traditional Music Performance put on by the the Conservatory of Ho Chi Minh City. It was many instruments I had never seen before and I really enjoyed it! Afterwards we even got to try to play the instruments. I did okay on the one I tried and I had fun trying to figure out how to play it and make it sound okay even though I’m not very musical.
After the performance we went on a tour of the campus. It was pretty small so there wasn’t a ton to see, but it was nice. There was gym equipment outside. It seemed like they were focused on the health of their students. The staircase is pictured below. 
Before we went back for lectures, we learned to do a traditional bamboo dance. The dance is called Mua Sap and is performed to celebrate special events. I would liken it to jump rope. https://youtu.be/KPQyLnDSGUI Here is a video of some skilled people performing this dance. None of us looked this good, although some of us did figure it out and do a good job. Not me though because I have no rhythm.
Afterwards we went back to the room and had a tea break before the first lecture. There were beef pies, quiche, banana cake and some fruits alongside the tea. The banana cake was very gelatinous but I liked it.
The first lecture we had was on poverty and inequality in Vietnam. I thought the most interesting thing from this lecture was that Vietnam has had great success with trade recently, and really since 1990. I also found it interesting that they had >7% GDP growth last year. That’s really significant. I really liked the first lecturer because he smiled the whole time and seemed to really care about what he was teaching.
When the first lecture was over, we went to lunch at the cafeteria on campus. They call it the canteen. At lunch we had Nhu help us order. I got soup, vegetables, rice, noodles, and a spiral hot dog. I didn’t totally love any of it but it was interesting to see what a student typically eats for lunch on a school day. 
After lunch we went back for our second lecture. This was on differences in advertising between Western and Asian cultures. The professor was very charismatic and I enjoyed the lecture a lot. I really liked that he showed us ads that were part of the same campaign but targeted towards different audiences. The most interesting thing from his lecture was that in American advertising, a motorcycle symbolizes freedom and independence, while in most Asian cultures, a motorcycle is seen as dirty and poor. A car is a big status symbol so a motorcycle doesn’t represent a lifestyle they aspire to.
When the second lecture finished, we had another tea break then did a quick review session with the Miami professors. After that, we all got on the bus to go back to the hotel.
When I arrived at the hotel I took a break for a short while to try to do some homework. Then I met up with some people from the group and our buddies to have dinner together. We had Banh Xeo which is a Vietnamese pancake (pictured below). It was really delicious and I had a great time at dinner! We also walked there and back (close to 30 minutes) so it was nice to see the city and walk around after sitting all day.
Finally, on the way back to the hotel we stopped at the Circle K again. I got the fish ice cream again (this time green tea flavored) and a milk tea with jelly that was bottled. The giant spider wasn’t there so I took my time more and looked more closely at all of the stuff. It was super fun!
Overall, it wasn’t the most fun day we’ve had but I learned a lot and really enjoyed getting to spend time with Nhu outside of program time.
Allison Around the World 