For several days I have enjoyed relaxing and helping Linh with her intership paper. As of this afternoon, the paper is now complete and she will meet her deadline by turning it in tomorrow! Linh's written English is very good and required little effort on my part to edit it. She should have her grade by Thursday after meeting with her professor(s)! I am keeping my fingers crossed for her!
To celebrate the paper completion, I also had the pleasure of taking Linh and her father (a newspaper editor) out to dinner this evening (see pic #78) - to a restaurant specializing in north Vietnames cuisine - the food was excellent. Our conversation flowed addressing many topics like freedom of speech and press, opportinities that democracy does and Communism does not offer, money (which the Vietnames openly discuss re income/expenses), ages, interspersed with a lot of good natured humor. He invited me to go on a motorbike tour roundtrip Saigon/Hanoi! I may take him up on his offer! The meal was too short because Linh's father was on his dinner break (he works 3PM to 3AM!). It was truly a great experience spending a few hours with Linh and he father - one I will always remember. I am off to Cambodia tomorrow..I will be flying from Saigon to Siem Reap tomorrow, Sep 29, at 12:40PM on Vietnam Airlines flight VN827. It is just over an hour flight. I intend to stay in Siem Reap for 5 days - returning to Saigon on Friday.
By the way, several have asked about Vietname work weeks and do they take vacations. Like us, those who can afford to do take vacations. But unlike us, no religion is recognized by the government (which I believe is true in all Communist countries), therefore banks, post offices, government offices, and all stores are open 7 days a week - only exception being "national" holidays of which there are few.
Also found out this evening that Vietnamese consider it very bad luck for an odd number of people to be in a photo - that's why Linh is not in the pic with me and her father!
That's about it from here - look for Angkor Wat and Tom updates sometime tomorrow - assuming I do not have any data connection problems in Cambodia! Wish me luck!
Ciao'
David
Posts
|