first day

Yesterday was our first day in Ho Chi Minh City. We went to the University of Economics and Finance and met with Vietnamese students there. It was very interesting to meet them and interact with them. While there, we started a Vietnamese language course which is not very easy. After that we went site seeing around the city. We saw the post office, the cathedral and many other locations. Then, we went to the United States Consulate here in the city. There we learned what the Consulate does and how it all works. We were given a history of the Consulate and a tour of the grounds. Later that night we ate dinner at a nice restaurant. We were served 5 courses of traditional Vietnamese food. The dinner was delicious and we all had fun. After dinner I went to the Rex Hotel with a few other members of the group. There we heard live bands play while we sat in their rooftop bar. The view from the top was incredible and the people were interesting to meet. I ended up meeting some people from Australia and a man from France. It was obvious to see the many differences between here and America. Here, traffic is very unregulated and quite dangerous. Although if you just walk out in the street most motorists will simply honk their horns and go around you. this was a major culture shock when I was nearly hit by a man on a motor scooter. Today we will be going to more classes and then a site visit. I will post more later after the day.