Friday, 13 June 2014

May 14: Museum Day

Today we started off at the shipping port.  I was not expecting to enjoy it because I didn’t think that there was much to see or do at a port; I thought there were just a bunch of boxes sitting there and being moved.  However, it was much more interesting than that.  The organization in this company was unbelievable.  They moved thousands of boxes to and from their port every single day and are extremely efficient.  We went up to their control tower and everyone there had to do a job to ensure the safety and swiftness of business.  Overall, I was very impressed by the company and I wish I could’ve stayed longer to learn more about it.  Following the company visit, we went to the War Remnants Museum.  This was the most humbling experience that I have had while in Vietnam so far.  It focused mainly on the Vietnam War, but the war between the French and the Vietnamese was covered as well.  It was very interesting to see the war from the Vietnamese point of view and to see how much the war affected them.  You would not notice it now, but during the war much of the Vietnamese land was destroyed and burnt to the ground.  The thing that got to me the most was the affect that the toxin Agent Orange, which was dropped throughout Vietnam during the war, has affected future generations.  There were many babies with birth defects because of this.  They showed pictures of the victims, and I could barely believe what I was seeing because it was so sad.  This entire museum helped me learn a lot and I am happy I went.  After we got back, some of us went to an authentic coffee shop with some of the Vietnamese students.  It was awesome because they had you sit on the ground when you were drinking it, and they had many games you could play while you were there.  We played Jenga which was really fun and the coffee was some of the best and strongest coffee I have ever had.  At night, we went to a bowling alley, which was really cool because you would not expect to see one in Vietnam.  And to finish the night we went to a place where they had live acoustic music, which was awesome because they sang American music and it was really relaxing.  Overall, even though today was filled with a lot activities, I enjoyed every single one of them.

Things I learned:
No one should ever be allowed to use chemical weaponry.

Vietnamese coffee is amazing.

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