As of yesterday, the "study" part of the program officially commenced! Professor Giebel took us out to a restaurant recommended by one of our TA's, Houn. The restaurant, called KOTO, is owned by an Australian woman and is a non-profit dedicated to 'rescuing' at-risk youth from the streets of Hanoi. KOTO runs a 2-year program for its trainees, which is free of charge. Afterwards, the young men and women are equipped with skills and experience to earn a steady wage in the city.
I ate Bun Cha, a traditional Viet Namese dish filled with pork, cilantro, a briny broth, and pickled vegetables. SOOO good!!

Viet Namese coffee is very dark. They serve it with sweetened condensed milk, which tastes like sugar on crack (as the saying goes) and pours out like molasses. It makes the coffee incredibly sweet and concentrated, but very good! Discretion is advised, in my opinion!

Later in the day we went to the Temple of Literature, which is a Confusionist academy founded in 1070 (I believe). It is one of the world's oldest academies.

The temple had 5 separate courtyards, with the final courtyard ending in a temple. The temple used to be mainly a celebration of Confucious and Confusionism, but has taken on somewhat of a religious tone (according to Prof. Giebel). Like the Buddhist Pagoda we visited the following day, the temple shone full of gold, and exhibited multiple statues of important "dead guys" (as I would say). At the foot of the statues, incense burned, people bowed their heads in respect or prayer, and offerings were left as gifts.

Later in the day Linh, Rebekah and I did as the Viet Namese do - we sat out in the street and ate ice and fruit!

The following day (today), we visited the museum of ethnology! In the picture you can see how humid it is outside- I opened my camera for two seconds, and my lens fogged over...

The museum has a very interesting outdoor exhibit displaying the houses of indiginous peoples. Apparently, as we move south for our program, we will encounter more houses in traditional styles.

The houses were INCREDIBLE! Huge, with tons of craftsmanship. It makes sense...it was ignorant of me to assume that these houses wouldn't be "advanced." I really enjoyed "starfishing" on one of the sleeping mats, as someone I know would call it!

Fertility must be a big deal in many indiginous cultures here. One of the houses had boobs carved into the ladder which, in order to get to the main level of the house, you had to grab onto for support!

A tomb was surrounded in X-rated carvings. Carvings of people having sex, men with erections, and pregnant women surrounded the tomb, as well as a couple of animals that signal fertility. There were also broken food plates. It is said to promote a strong afterlife and one that "lacks nothing."

Later in the day we went to a water puppet show, and then to a night street market. It was all very interesting!

 

*These farmers really couldn't stand the heat!