Day 12

Today I woke up a little upset knowing it was the last day here in Vietnam. I have made so many friends and done so many amazing things like have coffee with a CEO of a company. I really don’t want to think about leaving all of these amazing experiences behind. Our day started off with another Vietnamese history class which was again really interesting. Today we learned more about yin and yang as well as the 5 elements way of culture. I think it would be really cool to learn more about the Vietnamese culture and Asian culture in general. Hopefully I will be able to take a class on Asian culture or history sometime in the future. I think it will help me in my career especially since I plan on coming back to school for an International Affairs/Business degree.

After our history class we had our final Vietnamese language class. We actually had a test today and I got 100%! I swear it had nothing to do with the two Vietnamese girls sitting on either side of me either. I really do feel like I have learned some things from the class though and that’s important. I really like our teacher, she is really nice and I’m really glad Dr. Berman talked her into coming to dinner with us tonight.

After our language class we headed back to the hotel and had a free afternoon to go shopping. I headed to the tax center to get some more gifts for my family and friends. I got my friend a lighter like mine. I also got my dad a mahjong set that was really nice looking and I got my mom a kimono type sleep thing that I figured she’d like. I got some other things for my family but I’ll let them find out once they open them.

After shopping we headed back to the hotel again to get changed before we went out for our fare well dinner. The place where we went was really awesome and it was outdoors. The scenery was so beautiful and there was a party behind us with all sorts of entertainment so we got to see and listen to that too. Dinner was really good, we had some really good soup and Matt and Kyle once again had a pepper eating contest and they both died from the heat. It was a very cool dinner and we walked around and explored with Mr. Tin and Ms. Tu before eating. We took a lot of pictures and had a great time.

When we finished dinner we ran back to the hotel quickly with the intention of going to meet up with our friends for our karaoke party but we had to settle all of our room expenses before hand so that took us more time than we thought because the hotel wasn’t ready for us. When we finally did leave Matt, Kyle, Mike and I left first and got there really late. The kids were a little upset but they were glad we could make it. We sang lots of songs and had a great time. It was also Nhoc’s birthday so we sang happy birthday to her and we gave them all t-shirts. The rest of our group never arrived until we had to leave because the girls from UEF had to be home. The kids from UEF also gave us some gifts which was so nice. Tu had written us all cards and they all had bought us key chains. It was really unfortunate that the rest of our group couldn’t make it to sing with all of us but they ran into a little bit of trouble on their way there. Elizabeth got her purse stolen by one of the motorcycle mafia people. She lost her camera and her wallet but thankfully her passport was in her room and she could still make it home. They did come just in time to take pictures with all of us and to say goodbye to our UEF friends.

I really had a great time while in Vietnam and it was so hard to leave them and I really do not want to think about leaving tomorrow morning. I can honestly say this has been one of the best experiences of my life. I really have enjoyed my time in Vietnam and I really love everyone we have met. I hope to come back and see them all again sometime soon. Hen Gap Lai Vietnam!