Yesterday I…

Woke up at six and walked to the zoo. Its free before 7:30 but they kick you out at 7, so we didn’t have much time. I saw a zebra for the first time, and SUPER CUTE OTTERS—they kept chirping at us, but their enclosure had trash in it :( come on Vietnamese, clean up your zoo!! There were tons of kids rides too, but they hadn’t started up yet. Too bad, I wanted to go on a roller coaster.  There was also a BUNCH of people playing badminton—wish I could’ve joined in!

Ate Bahn Mi- traditional Vietnamese baguette—they put PIGS EAR ON IT!!! Ooooops. Next time I’ll pass, but I wasn’t sick so YAY!

Listened to a Communist Party member talk about the war.  His accent was so thick—I could barelllly understand.  He’d lectured at Harvard tho so he must be legit.  However, some of the things he said were obvi just communist views, so its hard to get a legit opinion on the war.

Ate at a Korean fast food place for lunch- Lotteria. They have chili sauce for French fries! It was nice to eat a little western food—literally, little. Portion sizes are smaller!

Went to the Reunifcation palace—this place used to be French and prettier, but then they redid it to look more ugly.  The presidents lived there until the capital moved to Hanoi.  Now they just have conferences there and stuff. This place was hot as fuck and we were all sweating balls the whole time. Pardon my French, but this heat is HORRIBLE!! One of our guides said it was hot, even by local standards.  TMI but I didn’t even have to pee that much because we just kept sweating out all we drank. Our professor kindly informed us he had a “swamp in his crotch.” TMIx200000

Went to the War Remnants Museum, aka "The House for Displaying War Crimes of American Imperialism and the Puppet Government [of South Vietnam]." Yeah.  It’s hard to see photos of things your country has done that you don’t support.  Pictures of victims of Agent Orange, the cages where they kept prisoners, what they did, etc… so tough.  I love you USA, but some of this shit is WRONG.  It’s good to see it from a different perspective though—everything can’t be Pho and fun all the time! Then we walked back and had to hurry to shower because…

We went to the Temple Club for dinner, which is co-owned by a W&L law alum. Brangelina has patronized this restaurant, as has Michael Caine.  The dranks were great—I’m 21 IN VIETNAM, BITCH!! Dinner was also good, seemed expensive but really still under 15 dollars.  However, we had to pay for everything—come on lady, help out some fellow Americans, ya own the place! Our cab ride there was also difficult—apparently we kept giving the driver the wrong money and he got impatient! Sorry dude, we’re just silly Americans…

After this we were goingggg to walk home but instead detoured to the Rex Hotel, which has a SWANKY ROOFTOP BAR! Good idea, Julian.  This drink cost more than my meals for the past two days combined, but well worth it.  I recommend the Singapore sling… There was some great music (sounded Spanish?) and views.

Then we had to go back to a watch a movie… but our professor went to gosleep and so did Alyce… so did we really watch it? Use your imagination. When in Vietnam…

So yeah.