1. The Food (specifically pho)
After leaving the Saigon airport in Vietnam, our first stop was to get some dinner of course. We went to a small restaurant in Saigon and ate pho. I remember when I received the bowl of soup I was surprised at the size because I had ordered a large and it looked like an extra small bowl. The Vietnamese eat small amounts of food and this adjustment took a while but I think I lost some weight from eating vegetables all day for 2 weeks so that was nice. One of the important and funny things I learned was if you pronounce the soup name “pho” wrong, you could be saying prostitute instead of the actual soup. A lot of Americans say it incorrectly, so I will have fun telling them this story I feel like.
2. The English Club (TEC)
After Saigon, our group traveled to Can Tho University. During the night, we were invited to TEC to help the students with their English. I would say it was more of a Karaoke night than anything. Everyone was giving performances, taking selfies, and Susannah and I even joined in the singing and sang Uptown Funk You Up. Great song by the way. This was such a great experience, because we were able to learn about different Vietnamese traditions and help them understand words that might have been too hard to pronounce in English.
3. Floating Market
When I heard about the floating market, I didn’t think it actually meant on water. Surprise! Our group woke up at 5 AM and got on boats and headed out on the Mekong Delta to buy fruits, vegetables, coffee, and pho. Of course, we had never experienced this before, so it was interesting seeing how farmers on boats would just come up to you and sell you stuff. There was a lady that was making pho on a boat. We were all astounded honestly. The coffee was amazing because it’s completely different from American coffee.
4. Phu Quac Island (Coconut Prison)
While on Phu Quac Island, our group took a trip to the coconut prison where the Americans teamed up with the South Vietnamese to capture the North Vietnamese and South Social Communist Vietnamese and brought them back to the prison during the war. It was overwhelming being at the prison, but I was thankful to have seen the place. I learned so much about the prison and the Vietnam War.
Mariam spent the 2019 January Intersession in Vietnam with the U of A Faculty-Led: Global Community Development in Vietnam program with the help of our Office of Study Abroad Scholarship and the Walton College of Business.
See more from the 2019 Global Community Development program in Vietnam on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/VNHogs2019/
Get started today! Search for your study abroad opportunity at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/search/
Get started today! Search for your study abroad opportunity at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/search/
