Oh my word. So disappointed in myself.

Waking up was fun! I mysteriously woke up at 8:07 am in time to get changed and hit the bus. I do not know how. At any rate, we went through some basic introductory language in class; Hello, my name is, I am from, my hometown is, I study this program at this university. We have a test on this stuff on Friday! WOAH! Our culture class also yielded some more interesting concepts, with the focus being on the “saving face” aspect of the Vietnamese people. It doesn’t matter if I’m wrong, or you’re wrong, or everybody’s wrong, we are beating around the bush until we are at a mutual understanding as to which third party to blame and no one’s opinion is being depicted as incorrect. In some cases it might be too nice, but overall it shows a lot of compassion on the side of the Vietnamese. It is, after all, a love based culture. We had a quick break after lunch to change and prepare for CBRE, a realty firm. This was an interesting (?) presentation, because the first thing we did was to leave the building. The meeting room that was our initial location had been used up by a meeting that was running late, so we took a short stroll down the street to a local café, where we were treated with drinks on the house and a nice chat about Vietnam. I got a milkshake, smiley face. We talked about Vietnam as foreigner’s, as the CBRE representative we met was an American named Patti. She moved to Vietnam in 1996, and has seen a lot of the transition that has taken place in recent years. She knows first-hand the warmth of the Vietnamese people, but has also born witness to some of the grayer sides of Vietnamese life. It was an interesting outsiders view on the country we were visiting, whereas previously we had just gotten the shiny view offered by thriving business men living at the tippy top. Very interesting. Dinner was supposed to be at seven, and due to our early wake up time Steve and I laid down for a nap. That was about 4:45. My alarm was meant to go off at six to give me ample time to shower and change and generally get ready to go. I woke up at 7:48. Eh crap. Oh well. Then we both woke up to a doorbell ring at 10:45 pm. Meh. They didn’t ring twice. And….