Day 11

 You are all cordially invited to my wedding!!! But the story of getting proposed to later!

So today was our last day of classes at UEF. We had a culture class ands language class. Culture was funny because somehow everything was actually a genital and everyone was sort of just like "Oh. Well then." and this guy was so enthusiastic and charismatic about it too. Very entertaining. Language class was a relief to finish because that was one of the most difficult things! Today was our "test" which meant a lot of glancing at the Vietnamese students for help when trying to speak haha. But I'm glad we learned the little bit we did.

After class we went to a Buddhist pagoda. This is the pagoda where Thích Quảng Đức and the other monks started from when they walked to the intersection and Thich Quang Duc self-immolated. He was protesting the south Vietnamese government that we were supporting. Talk about a slap in the face. But anyway, the pagoda was beautiful. Even with the changing color LED lights, it was still such a regal and elegant place.

After that we walked to his memorial of the corner where he burned himself. It was a beautiful memorial, but the whole thing was a little not real life. Like the intersection was so full of traffic, it didn't seem fitting. But there it was. That historic and iconic moment was just another part of city life.

Next we walked to the War Remnants Museum (formally the American Crimes against the Vietnamese people). It's a Vietnamese museum dedicated to the Vietnam/American war. I specify "Vietnamese" museum because it was VERY much from a "we beat the invaders" perspective, which is called for I suppose. Before I go on anymore about the museum, it's time for the weirdest thing that's happened to me (or anyone it seems) no this trip.

So we're about to go into the museum, and I mean like we're on the steps about to walk in. I am in the zone and ready to face the atrocities. Then, two kids (a boy and a girl) come up to me. "Do you remember me?" (Only the girl was talking). "Oh yea, I met you guys at the American Center!" The American Center is somewhere where we hung out with Vietnamese students our age and just talked. When I say I "met them" I mean I really just took a picture with them. That was it! Didn't know either of their names, ages, anything! Moving on! "Well we have a gift for you, come over here." To which I grabbed Kristen as I mouthed "don't leave me" and we walked over to where the girl handed me a bag. Inside was a leaf thing with large... shrimps? hanging down. She explained to me that the boy thought I was so beautiful when he first saw me that he stayed up all night making it for me! Oh wow! It was one of the coolest things! But how did they find me? Well apparently they looked up our schedule online and waited there for me. Just for some perspective, the online copy says we're at the museum at 2. We didn't get there until 3:15...

So not having any idea what to do, I thanked him profusely and eventually Kristen and I left. You could tell he wanted to say something, and the girl kept elbowing him in a "go on" fashion, but he never said anything. My professor asked if I was going to meet up with him, but I didn't even know his name to write him a thank you!

My future husband Loc

WELL! I might not have known his name, but he knew mine! That night I get a Facebook message from him.He explained that he made it form coconut leaves and that they were "glassshoppers." He also wrote "Really, today, I prepared any question as any answer to talk to you. But, when i met you, i don’t understand why i am speechless

smile emoticon May be i very suspensed" Still not sure what it means to be suspensed, but oh man!

The joke with my being married is because earlier in the day, we had culture class. We learned about the significance of numbers in Vietnamese culture. We learned that if you like someone, you give them one rose, but before you want to marry them, you given them 9 roses. Guess how many glassshoppers I got! Yep! So yea, you're all invited to my wedding now :P

The rest of the museum was by no means lost on me. I walked through, glasshoppers in hand, and was taught a Vietnamese perspective on something I thought of as US history. It was suffocating and surreal in there. Pictures of children deformed from the effects of agent orange, weapons, death counts, etc. The whole thing was vile for both sides. And as glad as I'm glad we went, I was just as happy to leave.

That night was our last night out, so we went to dinner and then to the club Apocalypse Now, which was not nearly worth the hype.