Day 10

Today started boldly but ended less so.

I went to the ATM by myself this morning. It's really just a block behind the hotel, but I felt really good about it! Like derpy Arielle can manage this! It was a good start to the day, and the day was only going to get better.

Today we didn't have class; we had food. We got to sleep in late (although breakfast closed somewhat earlier so we had to get up anyway) and instead of class at UEF, we drove up to a five-star hotel. It was gorgeous. Our scraggly group was way out of place in such an elegant setting. We stalled by taking a tour of the beautiful pool, and finally we were ready for our cooking lesson. We learned how to make fresh spring rolls (everyone expected mine to come out way better than it did haha) and fried ones (which were much less complicated to make). The lesson was fun and gave me wildly unqualified ambitions to cool Vietnamese food when I get home.

But the best part of the day was lunch. We had free rein of this fancy hotel's lunch buffet, which was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. I'm so grateful my foodie family taught me to appreciate good food, because everything was phenomenal and some people were just not seeing it as anything past "food." I had whole fried fish (tiny fish, heads and all, that had roe still in them), delicious cheeses (which this country has none of), pairs poached in wine, raw salmon so delightfully marbled, hot pans of a variety of dishes, fruits, pho to order, and so on. Amazing. It was a religious experience. The other major foodie, Sam, and I stood there planning our courses in order to make the most of the extravagant spread.

When they finally dragged me back to our less fancy (but still very nice) hotel, we changed and went to our final company visit at the Saigon Newport Corp. This was an interesting visit because first off, it's owned and run by the navy, and secondly I'm considering supply chain management as my major.

Sadly, I have a bit of a cold and couldn't pay attention to anything. During the presentation I was more concerned with not breathing like Darth Vader than I was with paying attention to the video. We got back in the bus and drove around the huge trucks and ships waiting for massive cranes to move the shipping crates to and from. A supply chain masterpiece I couldn't appreciate thanks to the once every 5 minutes on the 5 minute sneeze.

Back at the hotel, some people went back to Ben Tahn. I had the holy mission of finding sudafed so that my nose didn't explode from the pressure when I was on the plane. Kaylene was kind enough to accompany me, and thank god for that! As bold as I felt going to the ATM 12 seconds away from our hotel, my confidence quickly shrank as we got fairly lost trying to get to the easy to find clinic. After testing 2 other clinics, we reached our final destination only to be told that the drug in sedated cannot be found in Vietnam. Awesome. I was getting really flustered and panicked. We had to cross the street so many times, and that in itself is taking your life in your hands. More frustration, and I was ready to leave, but luckily Kaylene was there to ask where we can get a substitute drug, and we were off on yet another perilous walk. Finally got what I needed. On the way back, we stopped at this crazy toy store and I bought a Totoro stuffed animal :)

We spent the rest of the night trying on our new suits, which made us look awesome- pool hair and all. Some of us decided to go to a fancy hotel (The Rex, where they filmed the 5 O'Clock Follies) to "happen upon" our advisor Brian. We were by far the best dressed there.

Featuring (left to right) Pete "Snowball", Kristen, Edziu, Dan, yours truly, Beth, and Sam (bottom)