Faraway Places: rub a dub dub

Today we had our first Vietnamese test. We rewarded ourselves with a day at the spa. Once again I find it necessary to say exactly what I spent for this luxurious afternoon: an hour long, full body massage was 200,000 dong ($9.61). Then I got my hair washed for an additional 60,000 dong. The hair washing included an intense head massage. My friend Mikala and I were put in a couples room for a massage (so romantic). We both were in heaven. I have never gone to a spa before and I can't believe what I have been missing out on. Granted, I would feel different about the experience if I had dropped $100– but in Vietnam the only way to spend $100 is if you buy a house. Or something like that. Mikala said at one point she looked over at me and my masseuse was standing on my butt stretching my left leg towards my head all while massaging my foot.

Like I said, we had our first Vietnamese test today. I am finding this language really difficult to understand. I don't have any problem memorizing words or phrases– it is understanding and speaking the language that really confuses me. Vietnamese is a tonal language, seven tones to be exact. The vowels are almost impossible. When our professor is going through the different sounds I think I understand, but the moment she asks me to recite a line of vowels I get all messed up. I know what it should sound like, but I just can't make it come out of my mouth correctly. I get very flustered and frustrated. I know that eventually it will click so I am just going to keep trying my hardest and really emulate the way her mouth moves while pronouncing different words, letters, and sounds in general. When we are in class I frequently think of last fall semester at Bowdoin when I was working in a kindergarten classroom in Topsham. There were countless times when I observed my correlating teacher holding up different letters and the kindergartners, in unison, repeating the sound that letter made. That is us only we are more monotonous. The nice thing about Vietnamese class was that it ended an hour early. Hooray! The reason being– we had plans to go to the War Remnants Museum but they were hosting a conference of some sort in the early afternoon, which meant in order for us to have "enough time" we had to go earlier. If that was the case, I should have gone in five hours earlier. I honestly think I could have spent half a day walking around that museum without having the slightest hint of boredom. I am definitely going to go back next week so I can take my time reading different placards and really looking at the astonishing photographs and artifacts. I will give a more detailed explanation of my visit then, so stay tuned!

Last night a few of us tried to make our way to China Town but got distracted by a pagoda. Since this was the first pagoda that I visited I found it pretty interesting. There was definitely a clash of modernity meets tradition, picture Buddhas surrounded by blinking neon lights. The actual tower itself was stunning, especially all lit up at night!

the pagoda

Bobby's incense caught on fire! whoooops

flashy

Tomorrow morning we head out on our first excursion to the Cu Chi Tunnels. It will be fun to get out of HCMC for a little bit. Not that I am sick of HCMC, there is still so much more that I want to explore.

Here are some pictures that I wanted to share! Most of them have nothing to do with this post. Enjoy!