Day 9

Ok so today was absolutely insane. It started off like any other normal day. Wake up. Go to breakfast. Meet in the hotel lobby at 8:30. Wait for Jay and Leeor to stroll in at 8:40. Go to school. Sit through lecture and Vietnamese language class. Then Lunch at the Canteen.  But then we go to our company visit with Glass Egg Digital Media. And thats where things started to get interesting. Glass Egg is a gaming company, and basically what they do is 3-D art design for video games such as designing and creating cars for racing games.  It was really neat to meet with the head director of the company, Steve Reid, because he is also the co-owner of our favorite place to go at night, Lush! He talked with us about his company, all about the criteria to be an artist on their team, and how there is no other company like them in Vietnam so they are living the luxurious life of no competition, therefore feeling less pressure.  Afterwards he talked about coming to Vietnam and how he used to explore all the clubs, and we talked about Lush too.  He told us that tonight was ladies night, and that there would be about 600 people who show up. To top it off he said he was going to call in ahead of time and get us a table, all we had to do was ask for James, the general manager.

After the meeting everyone was all excited about Lush, that was all anyone could talk about. We finally went to Ben Thanh Market, in search of souvenirs.  It was really intimidating as people would grab your arm or follow you really closely to try and get you to by stuff. Not to mention the isle ways were no wider than 2 feet so the place was PACKED! I ended up buying a few souvenirs there.  I have come to find I am not very good at hashing....at all.  The sales people give me a price and I try getting them to lower it like I'm supposed to but I must have "Push-over" written across my forehead, because it never worked for me. I don't know why, everyone else has gotten their prices down by a good 40% or more. I will go back and try again though.

Ben Thanh!

After the market we went to dinner at this BBQ place, and it must be a Vietnamese thing to have restaurants where you have to cook your own food, because when I ordered chicken kabobs i literally got raw chicken on a stick, and had to cook it over a little grill on the table. It was very very tasty, It just took longer to eat dinner than expected since I had to prepare it myself. Then it was time for LUSH! So we show up to the club and we ask for James like we were told. Next thing I know, we are being seated in the VIP section on the upper level that looks out over the rest of the club, with our very own table! It was so cool. Everyone was having fun, dancing, talking, and relaxing. Only here for a week and a half and already VIP's...not too shabby for some nerdy American students.