{"id":721,"date":"2024-11-21T13:22:29","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T19:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/globalsemester2024\/?p=721"},"modified":"2024-11-28T12:54:37","modified_gmt":"2024-11-28T18:54:37","slug":"elly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/globalsemester2024\/2024\/11\/21\/elly\/","title":{"rendered":"Can I Stay Pho-ever?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
By: Ellyson Bang<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Hi all! This is Elly, and if you don\u2019t know me I\u2019m a junior biology major at St. Olaf, and I have been dreaming of Global ever since before I even came to St. Olaf. I am writing to you from both Vung Tau beach and Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) in southern Vietnam. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We arrived at Vung Tau beach on the 15th and enjoyed time off from class for our fall break. We all spent our leisure time at the beach recharging in different ways (yay, no schedule!), but my highlights included night swims, trying street food, watching movies, sleeping in, and wandering about the peninsula for coffee and boba. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday the 18th, we traveled back to HCMC where we will be staying for the next couple weeks. Since our return to the city, we have officially begun our Economics and Vietnamese courses, spent time getting to know more about the city with local students, and visited the Cu Chi tunnels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now for what you\u2019ve all been waiting for\u2026globie updates! On Friday the 15th we departed from Ho Chi Minh City for Vung Tau Beach. Many of us tried to get some sleep on the bus as the jet lag from our long travel days was catching up to us, while others  got their first glimpses of the lush Vietnam landscapes and small towns. When we made it to our hotel, I was thoroughly impressed by the welcome we received, with a fun little beverage and a tour showcasing the large pool, gym, and aquarium (which was actually just a dining room\u2026 a quite misleading name if you ask me). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The first thing on the agenda for some of us was exploring the shopping around our hotel, and in my opinion, the best place that we found was a small seashell store<\/a> at the end of a quiet alleyway. There were a few workers in the tiny store creating jewelry and decorations, but other than that we had the place to ourselves. I could tell by the surprised looks on the workers\u2019 faces that they were not expecting a gaggle of 10 students walking into their shop that evening.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The shopping trip was followed up by some swimming in the pool and group dinners. If you are not yet familiar with globie group dinners, it is what we call it when we use a random generator to split us into groups so that we do not overwhelm restaurant staff by all showing up at the same location when we do not have a reservation. And we get to compare notes about different restaurants in the area which is super fun. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n