Writing this in hindsight, today was probably the most
exhausting day by far which is impressive considering how action packed each
day has been so far. I started the day along with everyone else by waking up to
classes which were pretty interesting and fun as always especially language
class. Then we had above expectations lunch as always at Kent University. This
time however, we also went out onto the balcony which had the most spectacular
view of Ho Chi Minh City I had yet to see. It ended up being a photo shoot
where there were some pretty amazing pictures put up on social media later.
| Pretty eh |
Next we went to the Buddhist pagoda of the monk who burned
himself in protest of the South Vietnamese government discriminating against
religion. It was pretty inspiring to hear about the story and how impactful
that time in history was for both Vietnam and the United States. The pagoda
itself was beautiful and it was really nice to actually walk around the temples
you see in pictures all the time but never actually be in. This definitely
fueled my growing love for traveling.
Later (using progression of time propositions a lot in these
blogs), we walked directly to the war remnants museum which fun fact, used to
be called the American war crimes museum. It was pretty interesting to me how
Vietnam went from being extremely anti-America to being one of the most
pro-American countries in the world. The museum did a really good job of
showing the horrors of war especially Agent Orange and the atrocities it
caused. That one is going to be a hard one to live down. It also showed the
bravery and ingenuity of the Vietnamese while highlighting the cruelty of the
Americans. Although I feel as if America was very much in the wrong in many aspects
of the war, I felt as if the museum presented the facts in such a one-sided
nature that it was twisting the truth. I really want to see the American side
of the story after experiencing the museum.
After a splendid dinner like always, a friend from UEF and I
decided to just hang out in the city which, ironically, we both didn't know. We
first went to a cute little bookstore which had some cool knick-knacks here and
there. We then went to turtle lake which is going to haunt my memories for how
amazing it is and later McDonald’s pretty early in the morning. As my second
time going to McDonald’s in Vietnam I was really ashamed. It was a good day.
| Chills |
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