Catching Up, Last Two Weeks with my Host Family

 Sorry I've been absent these last few weeks. My group has been traveling all over central and northern Vietnam.  The last time I wrote, I was still living with my host family in Ho Chi Minh City.  Here's a summary of my last two weeks in HCM,

View of Ho Chi Minh City from Hoa Sen University in District 3.

During the second weekend back in Ho Chi Minh City, my group traveled to Cat Tien National Park.  We took a three hour bus ride then a ferry across a river to reach the park, which is on an island.  Once we arrived at the main park buildings we were told to put on leech socks and leech cream.  The "socks" looked like Christmas stockings and we were very skeptical that we actually needed them to trek into the jungle. After we were convinced we were leech-proof, we climbed into the back of a truck that drove us to the edge of the forest trail.

 Once we started hiking, we realized that the leech socks had been a very, very good idea.  The leeches were small, but they were everywhere along the ground.  Along the way to the rangers' station, where we spent the night, we saw a tree that was over 600 years old!

 The rangers' station looked like a group of connected tree houses that overlooked Crocodile Lake. 

 And yes, Crocodile Lake is home to hundreds of crocodiles.  After the sun went down, the rangers shined flashlights into the lake and we could see the crocodiles glittering eyes. We all had dinner with the rangers, which was a very lively event.  Mostly because the guides had forgotten to bring up bottles of water so we were left instead with a very large stash of the rangers' rice wine.  Rice wine in Vietnam is pretty much their national drink.  Whenever we meet new people, we are often asked to take shots of rice wine, yelling "mot, hai, ba, yo" (one, two, three, in) before each one.  The farmers in the Mekong Delta loved to drink with our group during our meals and the rangers were no different.  They even had thought of a drinking game "Sing or Drink".  Basically, you had to sing a song or take a shot.  Just so you understand, rice wine does not really taste like wine.  Depending on the quality and strength, the flavor is somewhere between rubbing alcohol and gasoline.  After a couple of rounds we all went back to our tree house cabins to sleep.  Thankfully, we had large mosquito nets to cover our beds because there were bats flying into our rooms all night.

The next morning, some of our group ventured out into Crocodile Lake hoping to catch a glimpse of a crocodile.  I stayed safely on the land and saw a couple of crocodiles moving through the water.

The grey bump to the left of the sign is the head of a crocodile.

 After breakfast, we put our leech socks on and hiked back to the main lodge.  We arrived back in HCM City Saturday night and spent the rest of the weekend with our host families.

Full native.  The Ao Dai is a traditional Vietnamese dress for women.  It includes loose fitting pants and a dress part that has long slits up each side that extend to the bottom of your rib cage. Every women gets them custom-made, so this one was not very comfortable to wear since I borrowed it from my host sister.

On Sunday, I went to my host sister's English Club meeting.  There was a man from Singapore who was presenting a program about interviewing skills.  He discussed topics like how you should dress, how to correctly give and receive business cards, and how to introduce yourself.  In Vietnam, the universities often do not have courses or extra programs to learn these skills so the students were really interested in what he had to say.

Here are a few foodie highlights from the last two weeks in HCM:

Durians.  They are really one of the most repulsive fruits known to man.  My friend Molly refers to the smell and taste as "an onion and vomit milkshake".  The fruit has a very mushy texture and a pale yellow color.  I actually like durian in mooncakes, but eating it plain is an acquired taste that I don't think I will get use to before I leave. 

Breakfast at my host family.  My host mother is a wonderful cook and every morning I would be served a huge, hot breakfast.  This dish consisted of thick noodles (I think they are made from tapioca starch), veggies, shrimp, and chicken.

Magenta dragon fruits.  Dragon fruit comes in two colors: grey and magenta.  Both types look the same from the outside and taste the same, but the inside colors are starkly different. Dragon fruit does not have much flavor.  I think the taste and texture is similar to the very inside white part of a kiwi.

Soft-shell crab with tamarind sauce. Mmmmmmm

Organ stew.  My host sister took me to a street vendor who served organ stew with bread and fresh herbs.  The broth was one of the most delicious broths I have ever eaten!  My host sister said she never asked what types of organs were used, but if anyone can identify anything let me know!

My host mother taught me how to make lemongrass beef wrapped in green leaves. 

Seahorse and ginger wine. This is the one thing I did not try.  I almost did, then my host family told me that it had been sitting there for three years.  It is suppose to be a medicinal wine to cure any sickness.  Thankfully, I wasn't sick that day.

 My host family was the most welcoming family. They let me join right in with everything they were doing and took me to experience lots of new foods and new places.  I met their aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents.  For one school assignment, I had to interview my host mother's mother, Bien.  She was born in 1942 in Northern Vietnam to a family of rice farmers.  Bien moved to Hanoi to continue her education when she was fourteen and eventually became a government official.  She lived through the occupation of French and American troops and raised four children. A large part of her village and her husband's village was destroyed during the American War.  In the late seventies, she was transferred to Ho Chi Minh City to continue working in a government office. Her story was fascinating and all the history we had been learning about in class was expanded on with her personal narrative.  For example, marriage "rules" have changed a lot from Bien's generation to the present. Bien's parents had an arranged marriage, but she was able to freely choose her husband.  She married in her early twenties, but none of her grandchildren are married yet (the oldest grandchild is 27).

Even though people are marrying later, family is still an important structure in society.  Children usually live with their parents until they get married.  My host sister graduated, but still lives with her family because it is what is expected and it is easier.  Some university students live in dorms or with friends, but only if their families live in another region.

I became very close with my host sister and could talk to her about anything.  After my program ends, I am planning on traveling around SE Asia, but my flight home is from HCM City so I hope to come back and visit my host family before I fly home.

My host mother, sister, and me at the farewell dinner.