Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Hue, Hoi An, and English camp

Hello hello hello,So it's been an exciting couple of weeks recently. 2 weeks ago, my group took a trip to the Central Coast of Vietnam. We took the train from HCMC to Quang Ngai. After 2 weeks in homestay, it was so much fun to spend 14 hours on the train. In Quang Ngai, we had the opportunity to meet Sandy's paternal grandmother. It was such a great day. Her grandmother lives in a small village, where not many tourists go. Everyone seemed very excited to see us. We also got a group of about 15 kids to sing a Vietnamese children's song with us. So much fun! They were so cute!After that, we got to spend two days on the My Khe beach near Quang Ngai. We celebrated Scott's birthday there by having dinner on the beach and then went swimming in the South China Sea. It was definitely one of those "holy shit, I'm in Vietnam" moments.While in Quang Ngai, we also visited the site of the My Lai massacre. That was a really intense experience. After learning so much about that event throughout school, and then being at the site where this horrific event actually occurred, it was very interesting. It was interesting to me that several of the students in my group didn't know that an American pilot had helped end the massacre.From there, we drove to Hoi An. A very cute little town, but it's being overrun by tourists. At times I literally felt like I saw more Western tourists than I did Vietnamese people. But it was still a fun city.From Hoi An, we went to Hue, the old imperial capital of Vietnam. We visited the citadel there. It had some beautiful architecture but a lot of it was destroyed during the war.Next we drove to Da Nang, which I believe is where I'll be spending some time during my independent study project. While there we toured the Cham history museum and also visited My Son, an ancient Cham religious site. Champa was a kingdom in Southern Vietnam. My Son was beautiful. It was set among the mountains and was just amazing. Unfortunately, many of the buildings were bombed during the American War, including the tallest tower of the site. Among the buildings, we found large holes in the ground that were caused by B-52 bombs dropped during the war. It was still an incredible place to see.After that we returned to HCMC and moved back into our homestay. I think my family was excited to have me back! It was a relatively uneventful week until Saturday arrived.Part of the University curriculum in Vietnam is that students are required to be part of a Youth Association or a student union group. Well this weekend, for 6 universities in HCMC, the youth association from our university put on 'Cross-Border Camp 2006.'In total there were almost 250 students attending this camp. Each of us, along with our homestay sibling were placed on one of 14 teams. Each team was assigned a country and were responsible for putting on a skit/song that represented our country. My team was Vietnam and I was roped into singing Trong Com, a Northern Vietnamese folk song that translates into Rice Drum. I don't sing, so needless to say this was very interested. The written goal of the camp was to promote cultural diversity and cultural exchange, but basically it was English Camp. The weekend was a chance for all the Vietnamese students to practice speaking in English. I really had no idea what to expect when we left. During the day, there were lots of games, and we went swimming. At night, there was a forum where the Vietnamese students discussed cultural diversity. That was definitely interesting to listen to their thoughts about Vietnam. After that though, was the main event. It was like this GIANT talent show. There was singing, dancing, skits...you name it, it was there. It was unlike anything I had ever seen in the US. Putting it into words really does not do justice to what I actually experienced. One of my favorite moments was when my group sang "This land is your land." It was crazing singing this American propaganda song at times seemed to be at times a Communist party youth rally. The whole event was definitely one of those things that I can now appreciate in retrospect. At times I got a little frustrated and annoyed throughout the day, especially when I was hearing the Aaron Carter album for the 7th time, or when I was trying to sleep and Aqua-Barbie Girl came on. At first glance, it was definitely annoying how structured the event was but that was definitely coming from my ethnocentric, American perspective. Now, I am so glad that I went because I definitely experienced an aspect of Vietnamese youth culture that I never would have understood before.So yeah, I hope I didn't ramble too much! On another note, I am so excited because my family is coming to visit in May! Well, almost everyone. Josh and Lynn, you have a good excuse on why you're not coming! (Can't wait to see the baby!)Hope everyone is doing well. For people back home, good luck with the end of the school year and on finals!Hope to hear from people soon!always,

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