EXCHANGE STORY - HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM

HEY GUYS! xD

So I already told you that I'm going to Vietnam for exchange. So here's my short story about it, check it out :))

1. First Impression

I arrived at Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) Vietnam 25/06/14 at 8.30 am. My buddy manager couldn’t pick me up so she sent her friend Sophie instead. Sophie came with her mom. After I took some money from the ATM machine, Sophie found me a taxi to go to my homestay. But Sophie and her mom riding a motorbike so I rode the taxi alone. The Taxi driver was a woman. Ah, and Vietnam has to ride vehicles on the right side. HCMC has a lot of motorbike users >< I think it's even more than Indonesia.

The taxi driver dropped me somewhere I didn’t even know so I waited for Sophie. But she didn’t showed up either. Thank God I wrote the address of my homestay so I started to ask people around me. And it turns out that the homestay just behind the building which the taxi driver dropped me and Sophie was there and worried why I didn’t showed up. Then she introduced me to my roommate, a Vietnamese student called Lee :3 Lee is really good at cooking, knitting, and other girly stuff :o.

Lee and Me

2. Hoa Sen School

I was invited to go to Hoa Sen School, to play with some high school students. This is the part of my project. Because I can’t ride a bus yet, my buddy manager Hao picked me up. There, I met the intern from phase 1 (I’m phase 2) and some phase 2 interns. I met Kiki!!! She’s an intern from Yogyakarta. So we played some games in English like Simon Says, etc.

3. Team Building

We play a game like ‘Running Man’. They gave us a clue, we must solve it and go to the place in the clue. First, we go to the park around 1,6 km by foot. There, we must carrying one people and jump to some numbers, picked a paper from a bowl of flour and answer the questions.

Second, we went to the post office, also by foot. There, we should find 5 foreigners to read a Vietnam sentence and took a video of them, took a picture in front of the post office, and found 5 Vietnamese to speak ‘I love Vietnam’ in three different languages, French, Malaysian and Indonesian. Jackson could speak French, I speak Indonesian, and we goggled Malaysian lol

Third, we went to the opera house. Here, we played a game ‘which the right step’. We took a step, and one of us will say whether its right or not. After this, actually we still have 1 place left, but the time’s up so we head back to the start point. After that, we had dinner together.

4. War Remnant Museum

I went out with Kiki on Sunday! I rode a bus alone from my homestay.The bus is not good looking, but it has an air conditioner and an automatic door and costs 5.000 VND (IDR 2.500) or 2.000 VND If you use the student identitiy card (If the driver accept it, otherwise it still charge 5000 VND) . It took 30 minutes to Ben Tanh Market.

We decided to go to the war remnant museum. It cost 15.000 VND. But later, my roommate told me that Vietnamese just pay 3.000 VND for that :/. There, I found many horrible, sad, and cruel pictures about war in Vietnam. I always held back my tears there :’( 

5. Cambodia

At early August, we went to Cambodiaaaa. There was 6 Indonesian guys including me. Me, Selli, Christi, Sirli, Agin, Nadira, and one Vietnamese girl named Natalie. We depart at 7 am by bus. Actually it just take 2 hours to make it to Cambodia immigration. But we were going to Phnom Penh, so it took another 4 hours T.T

After we arrived in the hotel, we took a walk around and took some pictures in front of the royal palace. In front of the palace there was a beautiful view from the stream (or sea?) with many flags from different country around the world. This was the city center of Phnom Penh. After that, we went to search dinner and back to the hotel because tomorrow we should get up early.

Nat, Nadira, Agin, Me, Selli, Sirli (Christi took the photo T.T)

On the next day, me, Selli, Christi and Sirli ride a Tuk Tuk to go to Wat Phnom and Central Market. It cost around $2 for one person. We went inside the temple and there was some people played traditional music while the others were praying.

Giant Clock at Wat Phnom

After that, we rode our Tuk Tuk again and went to Central Market. We bought some souvenirs such as keychain, T-shirt, etc. Because we all started to hungry, after went to the market we search some food. And we decided to eat in Warung Bali :’) the owner is Indonesian, and we have a chit chat in Bahasa with him. So glad that we met Indonesian people in Cambodia.

At 3.00 pm we rode a bus and heading back to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I arrived at Ben Thanh Market at 9.00 pm. We will miss you, Cambodia!

6. The Election

While in HCMC, I also went to KJRI. Because in abroad, it’s already time to pick who's gonna be the president aka the election. And you know what? I LEFT MY PASSPORT! But thankfully I could use my KTP aka Civil Identitiy Card (?) so I could join the election lol :'D

7. House for Children

Today I went to Hoc Mon with the members of House for Children project as a supporter. It’s pretty far, so we took a bus around 1,5 hours to the place. I met another Indonesian! Lol. I met Astrid and Angga there. So I’m joining them and play some games with the kids. OMG they were so cute >.< Ah, after that the members had some global village, such as introduce their country. We have Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, Senegal, Canada, Germany etc. After the presentation, we did some tradisional games; ah, the kids also prepared some dance performances for us, and it was really nice and made my day

8. iChange Summer Camp

On the iChange Summer Camp D-Day, I got lost! OMG. I was so confused because I thought I went to the right address. I asked several people but still I couldn’t find the place. I called Christi and Selly but they didn’t pick up the phone. Finally I called Fu Ming and thank God he answered. Then he told me the right direction and even picked me up because I couldn’t find the right building :’)

Finally I could join the camp. I joined Christi and Selli and prepared the global village. We introduced our country Indonesia to the students, and teach them Indonesian’s traditional games. Selli teach Saman dance while Me and Christi teach a Merak dance. We did it over and over because the students came from some groups. At the breaktime, I took some pictures with some interns and had a chit chat with the interns. Hao, my buddy even did my nails lol. She did a relly good nailart. Next, we had luch together with the students. It’s such a great day >.<

Janic and Me ><

Jaz, Hao, Hwe Kuen, Me

So, from this project, I learn a lot from the Vietnamese, the people there, my project, and my new family. I’m sure I will missed this feeling and missed my new friends that not only from Vietnam, but also from different countries in the world. I hope I can get another chance to feel this oppoturnities again in the future. Thank you AIESEC ><

Fu Ming, Hwe Kuen, Me

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