Day 4

We started off today by going to Le Hong Phong, a high school for gifted students. It is a school that these students have to be accepted into, and once they are accepted, they get to choose a major like English, French, chemistry, biology, IT, etc. on which 10th, 11th and 12th grades are based. The students we got the opportunity to interact with were all English majors, and once again I was VERY impressed by how well they spoke our language. They were very interested in our lives in America. I asked the student I spoke with what she plans on doing after high school, and she seemed very excited and motivated to either come to America or England to go to a university, which I thought was really awesome. All of the students were very fun, they liked taking pictures with us, too, which I really enjoyed.For lunch, Krysta and I went to a place called Pho 24 (http://www.pho24.com.vn/index.php), which is a Vietnamese chain that serves a traditional soup. It was very good. We also got to see our first Vietnamese rain around lunchtime. It started off as a drizzle and then all of a sudden it was pouring. I can't imagine Ho Chi Minh City actually during the monsoon season. After 5 minutes of a heavy downpour, the streets were flooded. My umbrella wasn't helping much, we still ended up getting soaked. But it was a really awesome experience. There's no good way to describe the rains. I kind of like how Forrest Gump puts it, "Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath."

After lunch, we heard a presentation by a lawyer who works for Duane Morris. He didn't talk much about the company itself, but rather how the economic crisis that is going on around the world will effect Vietnam later, but only in a secondary sense. He had a lot to say about the corruption in Vietnam, as well, and hearing about it made me realize just how corrupt the government is. He said that sometimes when he rides his motorbike, a general will stop him and ask for $10...and although the general can't technically do that, he has to give him the $10 or his bike will be taken away. It's actually kind of scary that these sorts of things go on.

We just got back from a trip to the Ben Thanh Market, where we just kind of looked around and got some dinner. The Ben Thanh Market was an interesting experience. You can get t-shirts for $3 there, which I will probably end up doing eventually. They also have a lot of really cool traditional trinkets that will fit perfectly in my suitcase.

This is a picture of all the motorbikes that were parked at the high school we went to this morning. And this was one side of the parking lot, to give you an idea. The students each have their own, which I think is really neat. They don't need a license to drive one, but have to be at least 16. I was a passenger on a motorbike ride twice today, and was impressed by how much skill it takes to ride one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr5Gssaxl6g&NR=1