Today we took a day trip to the Vung Tau Province, which is south of Ho Chi Minh CIty. It is about two hours away from our hotel and we got to talk to more of the University of Economic and Finance (UEF) students on the bus. It was very interesting to learn more about their culture and the daily life of university students. On the way there we got a glimpse of rural Vietnam and were able to see what a smaller town looks like. When we got there we walked up over 800 steps to see the Jesus Christ statue and then went to a beach resort.
At the resort and from talking to more of the students, I learned more about their culture and how they live. First of all, they brought a speaker to the beach and played music for us. It was surprising to me that they listen to a lot of American music and they said they do not like Vietnamese pop. They said that it talks too much about love and that American pop is more catchy. Some of them even knew more of the words than I did to many modern American songs. I also noticed that their swimwear is more conservative than ours. Their swimwear and clothing in general is usually more conservative and even in the very humid and hot weather, there are many people wearing long pants. A cultural similarity that I noticed is that the way the students talk with each other is very similar to in America. They joke around with each other and talk very casually. I really don't know why I thought the way they talked to each other would be different, but now I really know how students from different countries interact with each other. The final thing that caught my attention was the fact that many students live with their parents or close family members while attending college. In America, college is usually viewed as a time when kids can break away from their parents and be out on their own. But in Vietnam, your parents still have a lot of authority over you in college and I think this reflects a high respect for elders in the family. It also shows that Vietnamese students may not have as much freedom in college as American students. Overall, this was a very fun day and we got to spend a lot of quality time with the students from UEF.
Jesus statue in the Vung Tau Province. We got the chance to climb up into the statue and take in the views from on top of Jesus's arms. If You look closely you can see people on the right arm in the photo.
View from the beach resort.
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