Whew

It has been a whirlwind of a few days to say the least. Two days of traveling and going on a day trip my first day here has been a bit overwhelming.

I left Wednesday night, flew to Chicago, flew 14.5 hours to Seoul, South Korea, stayed in the Seoul airport for 14 more hours, then made the 5 hour flight down to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). I actually ran into a guy from St. Louis Park as I was getting off the plane in Seoul. I knew him from Herzl & had a class with him at Wisconsin! Turns out, he was going to China to teach English for a year and also had a long layover. Although he was only there for 5 hours as compared to my 14, it was still great to have someone else to talk to and eat with for any time at all. The flight attendants for Asiana Airlines, which I took for the last two legs, all looked like porcelain dolls. There is no way any of them were over 30, and both their skin and outfits were completely wrinkle-free. I wish I could have experienced their wonderful service, but I slept nearly the entire 19 hours I was flying on Asiana. They did, however, lose one of my bags, which I have yet to get back. I have most of my clothes in the bag that I do have, but most of my shoes, all my underwear, and a few other things are somewhere between Minneapolis and HCMC. The time difference is exactly 12 hours, so it literally is the opposite side of the globe.

One of my roommates is an American-born Vietnamese girl, and she has been here for almost three weeks. Even though this is her first time in Vietnam, she knows a bunch of conversational Vietnamese and is pretty acclimated to the area, so she's been super helpful. She booked a one-day tour of the Mekong Delta for the two of us and our other roommate, Bob, for today. It was pretty jarring jumping right into a tour the first day, but I'm glad I did it. I'll post more about the tour tomorrow, but I am about to fall asleep at the coffee shop where we get internet.

Hope all is well with all of you, and Shana Tovah!