Crazy crosswalks

Well, I made it! No lost luggage, missed flights, or bad episodes on the plane. Not that the 16 hour plane ride from Newark to Hong Kong was enjoyable. I think I watched six movies. Maybe I slept for two hours. It wasn't the best. But it doesn't matter because I don't have to make the return trip for awhile! On my last flight from Hong Kong to Vietnam I sat next to a guy from Salt Lake City who has lived in Vietnam for the past year. Among many other things, he told me that in the first two weeks I would get sick from the change in diet. More on that later.

The first two days have been a whirlwind. Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City is such an interesting place, I have never seen anything like it. First off, it is a pretty big city but it is sprawling, besides one 80 story building there aren't really any skyscrapers, which can make the city seem large and intimidating. Also, it seems to be that the city isn't as conventional as say New York or Boston, there aren't really blocks so it is hard to judge how far you have walked. And then there is getting around the city. As a pedestrian, it is extremely dangerous if you haven't been instructed how to cross a street. There are the occasional stoplights and "cross now" signs, but generally speaking pedestrians just charge into the road and the motorbikes will swerve around them, inches from hitting somebody. The first day Thanh, our academic director, told us to walk at a steady pace with our eyes on our destination and that you are never ever to run across a road. It is pretty scary. After just two days of crossing the street I feel more comfortable but it is going to take a lot of practice before I have the confidence that I am not going to get plowed over.

The food here is soooo good. I have made the decision to put aside my localvore diet (for those that don't know I try to only eat meat that is from local and organic farms). I didn't want to miss out on all the extraordinary tastes that Vietnam has to offer. I am still very conscious about what I am eating and I am more likely going to eat more poultry than red meat. Yesterday for breakfast I had my first bowl of pho soup with duck. It is so different to eat soup for breakfast versus a bagel or bowl of cereal, I think it is much healthier. Thus far, all of our meals have been group meals that are paid for by the program. But starting in the next few days we get a stipend of 9 US dollars a day for three meals. That may seem like nothing, but pho costs less than 2 dollars. So really I can budget $2 for breakfast, $2 for lunch, and then $5 for an "extravagant" dinner. Everything is so cheap. It is wonderful. Yesterday a few of us went out to a small bar and a beer was only 40 cents– 12,000 dong.

So as I alluded to earlier I have had a bout with food poisoning slash maybe sun poisoning. It was a rough way to spend my first night in Vietnam, (Spencer, if you're reading this you would have been proud of me). I started to feel really sick at dinner so I only ordered a salad and after not even being able to manage to put a piece of lettuce into my mouth, I decided it would be a good idea to leave the table and make my way back to the guest house. This morning I tried to stomach some breakfast only to return to my room and go back to bed, which was unfortunate because I missed some of orientation. I woke up at 2:00 and felt so much better. I was able to meet up with the group to tour the reunification palace, which is where the Vietnam War ended when the North Vietnamese army crashed a tank through the gates and declared victory. After exploring the palace, which was beautifully furnished and had a rather creepy basement, I rode around on the back of a motorbike for an hour. It is the best way to see the city. I just want to throw out there that my helmet has a sticker on it that says "Pretty Dog." Awesome. Vietnam has recently implemented a new law that requires all drivers and passengers to wear helmets, since traffic accidents are the number one cause of death in the country. That being said, the drivers are so alert. They see everything around them. But it isn't defensive driving, you have to be aggressive otherwise you won't get anywhere. There are some really stupid people that drive on the wrong side of the road in order to get to places faster, they are probably the ones responsible for accidents. Honestly the traffic is crazy. I don't understand how they do it. You come inches away from getting t-boned all the time. But it is an organized crazy, there is some system that they all understand and I think the only people that mess up that system are the foreign pedestrians who don't understand how to cross the street (soon to be not me). I was riding with this Vietnamese student that requested I call him King. I guess that his Vietnamese name translates into King?... anyways he is from a volunteer group at the University of Economics. He is going to show me more of the city tomorrow and probably will take me to get my new cell phone. It is so weird to not have one.

Happy Independence Day! September 2, 1945 Vietnam declared independence from France. The city celebrated tonight with fireworks which we watched from the top floor of Thanh's apartment building. Then we went out to this posh club but we were all wearing shorts, t-shirts, and sandals. We almost didn't get in because we didn't meet the dress code. We definitely stood out!