I was in a funk. A huge funk! Ok well not huge but I was definitely not my normally always happy, bubbly, fun Madi. The stress of housing and classes for next semester paired with exhaustion of travel and work of school I was not feeling it, and it kind of showed in Vietnam. I did try to make the best of my time there and it turns out I had a lot of fun, but I stuck a lot to myself, and didn’t go on any huge cross-country trips. I stayed in Saigon and bummed around the city.
The first day may have added to my funk when I went out with the boys to help with the custom suit choices. After way more then three strikes and we were still at home with bat in hand the ump (me) was starting to get a little pissy. They expected too much for no money, finally we got a compromise and got their suits, but lunch there was a minor tift between Paul and me, and when things go sour with us it appears that the whole group is brought down. However, I swallowed my pride apologized and all was well. That night we all went out, and we met a group of surf and snowboard bums from Australia and ended up talk with them about travel and adventures and snow for a lot of the night. Man I miss snow!!!
Day two I attempted to crash a service trip put on by semester at sea to go take deaf children to the zoo, but there was not enough room so I went into town and met up with some girls from USD. We wondered around and went to get dresses made. I ended up having a lot of fun and am happy I made a few more friends. Wouldn’t say we will be doing each others nails and combing hair anytime soon, but still friends none the less. I am writing this long after the country so I may have lost a lot of details, but I believe the second night I stayed in and caught up on some sleep! Or I went out they all mix together. Whatever the case I was not wasted cause I know that’s what you are all thinking because I can’t remember. Oh and the dress looks great, thanks for asking!
Day three. I begun the day with a service trip to a school for the disabled. A lot of the kids were either deaf or had a metal disability. I had fun playing with the little kids in their classroom (the teacher loved me he even wanted pictures), and I also had like a 45minute chalkboard convo with 16 year old deaf students. Their English was great and it seemed as if there was no language barrier at all. One of the girls even was a fan of crime shows so it was an instant friendship. After I got back Rachel John and I went to the market were the purse god was smiling down on me, I cannot tell you how many I bought, but lets just say my collection grew a ton. On our way out we saw Dean David and when we realized that our plans were the same for the night we combined groups. After shopping we met our dean and his wife for a beer, went to the water puppet show (which was super cool!!! Lots of videos to share when we get back), and then met another teacher and his wife for dinner. The food was great the company may have been greater, and it was a awesome night. Every once in a while you need a big kid night and that was mine.
The next day I found that Rachel’s infected toe disabled her from going on her SAS trip so she and I went into the market and shopped till we dropped. It was a lot like way to much after two days of spending money my bank account was feeling it. Afterwards we went to the war museum and concluded that our school systems need a total revamp. We also had many discussions about the relationship between the Vietnam war and the current war and if the soldiers will be treated the same upon their return. Kind of hard to describe the emotions and feelings and topics of convo generated by the museum, but it opened our eyes for sure. That night Rachel the girls and I went out to this beer bar, and then kind of bar/club jumped around which had us ending at the same place as the first night. Although the place was swarming with cute Europeans I was tired and ducked out early (like 1) and went to sleepipoo. I slept a lot in Vietnam; It was most likely due to the funk.
The next day was Paul’s Birthday!!!! We met up to shop and Lars and I got lost in the market and so we had to go back early, not with out a great new assortment of TV shows and movies. That night we all went out to dinner to celebrate. Unfortunately, the ship had experienced a huge tragedy, one of the students was found dead in his cabin. It has not been released as to how he exactly died, so I do not want to start rumors, but needless it was a horrible tragedy and the entire ship was affected. It was hard on our group because John was the one who came across the initial commotion and checked his pulse to find he was no longer breathing. He was very spooked and rightly so as were the rest of us and extremely depressed. The entire night we tried to make Paul’s birthday a happy one, but the days activities were affecting us all and at one point we each had a break down while out. Even with the black cloud we had a good time celebrating Paul and Andres lives.
The final day (which as I said before I am writing this long after and believe I have added a day, but everything is true, just the time is a little off) we did our final run of the city got massages mani and pedis and got some last minute CDS.
As a follow up to Vietnam the ship held a service for Andre our first day back at sea. It was very nice and truly showed who he was and how he touched all of us. RIP Andre
Love you al so very much!! Stay safe and live your life to its fullest.
