{"id":744,"date":"2024-11-26T05:13:59","date_gmt":"2024-11-26T11:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/globalsemester2024\/?p=744"},"modified":"2024-11-28T12:45:30","modified_gmt":"2024-11-28T18:45:30","slug":"rosa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/globalsemester2024\/2024\/11\/26\/rosa\/","title":{"rendered":"In A While…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
By: Rosamond Greblo<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Xin ch\u00e0o! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And nice to meet you! My name is Rosamond (Rosa) Greblo and I\u2019m a junior biology & education major at St. Olaf. After almost being denied entry into Vietnam due to a passport and visa middle name mismatch, I am very happy to be here in HCMC. As the customs worker tried to tell me through my tears when I thought I was going to have to fly home, “don\u2019t worry, just be happy!” Just what I needed to hear. All jokes aside, I have been loving my time here in Vietnam and am excited to fill you all in on what the globies have been up to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On Thursday and Friday we continued with our Vietnamese lessons, learning fruits, ordering at a restaurant, numbers, directions, and how to say \u201cthis is so yummy my armpits hurt\u201d (from shoveling food into your mouth). Haha. Our Vietnamese teacher, C\u00f3 Ph\u00e1t, has been so patient with us as we stumble through learning this new language. As the days go on, I think we\u2019ll start to be more confident in our Vietnamese skills, and the locals we have met have been very patient and forgiving with our mispronunciations. \ud83d\ude42 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have also continued with our economics classes, studying the history of the Vietnam economy and the 1986 implementation of the Doi Moi economic reforms. This change switched the Vietnamese economy to a socialist-oriented market economy. Before the switch to the Doi Moi reformed system, Vietnamese citizens were suffering greatly under the state of the centrally planned economy. Investment in heavy industry and neglect towards agriculture were significant factors that led to poverty, famine, hyperinflation, and food scarcity. Long-term government corruption and a need to settle the qualms of the Vietnamese population to avoid an uprising against the single party system were additional incentives for the switch to the market economy. These changes allowed the Vietnamese government to address a portion of the citizen\u2019s suffering and to stay in the field of vision of non-communist countries for trade purposes, but allowed them to maintain their power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For lunch on Thursday, I was especially intrigued by the abundance of vegetarian\/vegan restaurants here in HCMC! As the resident vegetarian on this trip, I\u2019ve been very excited about all of these options, so I took a group to visit one of them and had some very delicious ph\u1edf. After a brief thrift shop visit after lunch, I ordered a motorbike for the first time to drive back to SIT. I thought I would be more scared to use them, but to be honest, it\u2019s so much fun to weave in and out of traffic and feel the wind in your hair. Sorry mom and dad! <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The afternoon through Friday was mostly filled with economics classes, covering macro and micro economic management, import and export trends, and a panel at the HCMC University of Economics<\/a> where we heard from an entrepreneur and an environmental scientist within the same talk. Both speakers connected their thoughts to current economic trends in the Vietnamese economy, like the importance of rice exports and aquaculture products, and how whether we want to start a business or understand the impacts of climate change in this coastal region, both issues involve a community\u2019s ability to thrive and make a living, which is economics! As a biology major in an economics class, I enjoyed seeing these connections. After the panel, we played telephone Pictionary with the Vietnamese student attendees and sang karaoke. I\u2019m not quite sure how or why that happened, but I sure had fun. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On Saturday, we took a field trip to the Can Gio Mangrove Forests<\/a>, about 2 hours outside of HCMC. We had a few planned activities there that day – including tree planting, a boat tour of the bat sanctuary, bird watching, and feeding crocodiles! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mangrove forest was designated by UNESCO<\/a> and is thus a protected area. There are households scattered through the forest that receive government money to protect the forest; we learned that this type of biodiversity protection is actually pretty common in Southeast Asia. While there are police officers and army members patrolling the border, the protection of the inner forest is left to the community. The mangroves are all secondary forest, as Agent Orange was sprayed on the area during the Vietnam War to wipe out the vegetation and expose the North Vietnamese army. <\/p>\n\n\n\n