July 28th - August 10th, 2024

The day after I got back from my travels, Ngọc took me with her family for a birthday celebration of one of her relatives. We had hot pot. I’ve come to learn that I don’t like hot pot. It’s just boiling food in bone broth and in turn it doesn’t have much flavor. Hanging out with Ngọc and her family though was pretty special. Grace, Chanel and I started going to the gym. We went 3 times before I left Hai Phong. It was at this studio tucked away in an alley and it wasn’t listed on google maps. Grace, Chanel and I joked that it was ran by the mafia. It wasn’t air conditioned either so it was very hot in the studio. Not a bad way to sweat that extra little bit. Each time we went to the gym we stopped at our favourite bahn mi place on the way back. Banh Mi’s are definitely the best bang for your buck in Vietnam as they never cost more than 40k dong with is 2.50$. At the gym we found out from the owner that she runs a salsa class and social. Chanel grace and I went and checked it out. I don’t know how to Dance salsa so I just swung danced with the ladies there. It really made me want to learn how to salsa/bachata/ and kizomba. Chanel was really good but I later found out she use to be a professional dancer so it makes sense. While in Hai phong Harry and I met a German dude named Ben. When I was off on my travels harry and grace got close with Ben. Once I got back Ben was a solid person in the friend group. Ben is 23 and lives with a Vietnamese family. He speaks really good Vietnamese. The family he lived with was very gracious and had us over a few times and then we went out on the town. We went to the club one night. Another night they took us to this random event that was a fountain show. We also had hot pot which the family paid for. I was so thankful for that. We then walked around the promenade before we made our way home. I spent my final 2 weeks including what’s been spoken above at the lingo academy and taught some kids every weekday. I didn’t get any anxiety during teaching but I think that’s because I decided I didn’t want to be a teacher anymore so that took a lot off the pressure off On the final day of teaching the center organized an event for the kids and we did different challenges outside to score various points. My team won! Woot! Woot! I am now on my way back to Canada and I will forever remember my trip to Vietnam. At this current moment I wouldn’t say it was life changing but that has yet to be seen till I get back to regular Canadian life