Vietnamese is very challenging to speak because there are six tones. This means that there are six different voice inflections that you could add to a vowel. All of the tones are written above a vowel to indicate the pronunciation of the word. However, all of these squiggles make it difficult to write since I am always forgetting which direction they go with each word. Vietnamese is also a monosyllabic language. (They have a lot of trouble pronouncing my three syllable name). Since all the words are short, a lot of letters are repeated in the same order, but with different tones. For example, tăm, tấm, tám, thơm. These words mean toothpick, broken rice (cơm tấm is the full version. Cơm means rice.), eight, and pineapple. It's particularly hard for foreigners to distinguish the difference in pronunciation between these four words.
After Vietnamese class, I have a two hour lunch break (nice, right?!). Then from 1:30 - 3:30 various professors lecture my class about topics ranging from gender studies to urban migration patterns. On Thursday and Friday we have other classes in the morning, like a field methods class to prepare for our Independent Study Project. After class, I usually go back to my host family's apartment and hang out with the family. A lot has happened in the last two weeks so I will try to give a summary starting with the first week...
On Monday, October 1st I came home and my family took me out for a "snack" before dinner. Now before you read further, you should know that I will try and eat anything at least once. So when my family took me to eat unborn duck eggs I followed their lead. Unborn duck eggs are duck eggs where the egg has been fertilized and the duck has starting to develop. But before the duck is born, the egg is boiled and then served. At a tiny street restaurant (I can't think of a better term for them. The woman cooked on the sidewalk then brought us the food in a tiny room next door filled with the tiny toddler sized plastic chairs and tables that are everywhere in Vietnam), a woman brought us two white unsuspicious looking eggs with herbs, salt, chili sauce, and limes. My host sister squeezed the limes into the salt and mixed in a spoonful of chili sauce. I sat watching the white eggs as if they would leap to life and roll across the table. I recall watching some travel channel show where they ate a duck fetus that was pretty much fully developed and I didn't know what to expect. My host sister told me to hit the bigger end of the egg with the back of my spoon and then peel away the shell. Inside was an abnormally large yellow yolk, covered in spidery veins, and a whitish, greyish blob. I tentatively poked the white part and took a tiny piece of the yolk to taste. The yolk tasted like a boiled chicken egg yolk, but a little more firm. I worked up the courage to use my spoon to take a piece of the actual duck and dipped it in the chili and lime salt before bringing it to my mouth. Chewing it, I was expecting to chew crunchy parts, but the texture was more mushy. The egg white surrounding the blob was very firm and the only strong flavor came from the salt and lime sauce. I finished the whole egg just to say I actually did it (and to impress my host family since none of the other five previous exchange students had eaten a whole one before). While eating I tried not to look at it (I could see little feathers, but didn't look further than that) and just focused on chewing.
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| Unborn duck eggs. |
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| Unborn duck eggs on the left and clams on the right. |
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| Cheese and meat platter at L'USINE. |
During my first weekend with my host family I did something that I would never have done at home, dance in front of a huge crowd of freshmen university students. My host sister is the president of an English club at her university. (She just graduated this year, but is still active in the club.) Her school, Hoa Sen University, had an orientation for freshmen students on Saturday, October 7 (most universities begin classes in September or October). At the orientation, clubs have a booth and also are allowed to prepare a dance routine to perform in front of all the freshmen.
When my host sister asked me if I wanted to join in, I said sure, not really realizing what I was signing up for. Let's just say I am not really a dancer. My dance experience culminated during my first year at Barnard when I took Modern Dance 1 to fulfill my P.E. requirement. That class was fun, but I learned early on that my dancing should probably be limited to my own home.
Regardless, I found myself practicing a dance to Avril Lavigne's song "What the Hell" and "Danza" by Don Omar on Wednesday, October 3 and Friday, October 5 night in a park in Ho Chi Minh City with other members of English Club. Luckily, one of my classmates, Eliza, decided she would perform with me. Eliza's host family lives only 20 minutes from mine so it was easier for her to come to the dance rehearsals in the park. On Saturday, October 6, we went with the English Club to the orientation at one of Hoa Sen University's campuses in District 12. During the morning, we stood by our booth and handed out English Club fliers. As the only non-Asian students there, Eliza and I experienced what it feels like to be a celebrity. Standing by the booth, we were approached by more than fifty students asking if they could take a picture with us. Being good sports we went along with it, flashed the two-fingered peace sign (here it means "happy") and smiled.
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| Eliza posing with the opening day poster. |
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| English Club Members |
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