Hey Everybody!
Sorry I haven't written in a while, partly due to laziness, and partly do to a lack of things to share with you.
The last couple of weeks have been relatively uneventful. I've just basically been going to class and hanging out with the people on the program. But there are a few new things to talk about. :)
The American students and our roommates went to the Cu Chi Tunnels a couple of weeks ago. These are underground tunnels, basically a whole underground town, that the local people used to fight the Americans during the Vietnam War (which the Vietnamese call the American War). We actually got to crawl through some of them, which was really awesome. Definitely not for people who hate small, enclosed spaces. :) they were so small! Being there it was clear to see that the Vietnamese are definitely proud that they won the war.
That same day we also went to a Cao Dai temple. Cao Daoism is a relatively new religion which began in Vietnam in the mid 1900s. The temple was really impressive. It was really big and had every color imaginable. The main symbol is a left eye. They have great respect for the left eye because they believe that it is the window into your soul. I don't know much else about the religion, except that it is a mixture of many other religions. There was even a bust of Jesus at the front of the temple. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures, because my camera was temporarily out of order (and getting it fixed was not a pleasant experience...)
My Korean friend Hanee is visiting this week! She studied at UNC last semester, and just went back to Korea in January. It's so great to have a good friend here, if even for a short time. We have had all sorts of adventures. :) We went to visit the Ho Chi Minh Museum, which was an interesting experience. The Vietnamese have a completely different perspective on Ho Chi Minh than we do in America. They respect him a great deal, and they portray him almost like a saint. It was really eye-opening to go to his museum and see such a different perspective on him and on the war than what we have in the US. They had a lot of quotes from him posted up on the walls, which was probably my favorite part of the exhibits.
We also went on a one-day trip to the Mekong Delta, which I loved! It's probably my favorite thing that I've done in Vietnam so far. It was so great to get out of HCMC and really get to see the more rural side of Vietnam. We took a 3-hour bus ride to Cai Pe, where we got on a boat and went up the river to the floating market. The floating market is where the locals buy and sell fruits, vegetables, etc. There was even a guy selling sodas from his boat! :) We also got to see people making rice paper, rice crispies (haha...and yes, they were just like the cereal!), and coconut candy. We had lunch at a river-side cafe and got to walk around and explore a little bit. It was so nice just to have time to walk around in this quiet, serene place. Before heading back to HCMC, we got to spend about an hour in a nearby town. Unlike the city, the people here aren't used to seeing foreigners, so we got lots of stares. But I loved it because we actually got to talk to the local people. The city is so impersonal, and no one really cares that you're there. But here people actually wanted to talk to us, kids especially. I got to practice my Vietnamese, which was great. I love having Hanee here, because she makes me feel like I actually know how to speak a lot of Vietnamese. haha.
I've been able to visit a couple of churches here. The last two sundays I went to a Vietnamese church. They had someone translating the service into english, which we listened to in headphones. But the technology really wasn't that great, so it was still hard to understand. But it was great to at least be in a room with about 200 Vietnamese believers. This morning I went to an international church that met in an incredibly large home in District 2. It was great to actually sing songs in english and hear a sermon that I could understand. And the pastor talked about adjusting to living in another culture, and remembering, even when things are hard and we feel like we are failing, that we are made in the image of God and that He loves us no matter how much we mess up. That was really good to here, because I'm still really struggling with adjusting to the culture here. It's a lot harder than I expected it to be, and I've been fighting the culture so far. But I know there is always grace for me, and that His mercies are new every morning. I just need to keep reminding myself of that.
Well, I think that's about it for now. I'll try to get off my lazy butt and update more often from now on. :) I hope you've enjoyed my ramblings!
Amanda
p.s. - I'll add some pictures soon. It's getting dark and I need to head back to the guest house. :)
One of the roommates did our hair. 
That's definitely a grapefruit...that happens to be the size of my head.
Me and Ho Chi Minh 
