Monday: Day 8

Today was market day! We started out the day with Vietnamese culture and language class, where we learned all the basics that we would need to bargain with the shopkeepers in the market (the numbers, "how much is this", and "too expensive" being the most important). Then, it was off to the market for some shopping. The market we went to, Ben Thanh Market, is one of the oldest markets in the city. Apparently, its a more touristy place than some of the other markets in town, but we all loved it! I think most of us were pretty overwhelmed when we first got there. The entire market is inside this huge warehouse building taking up a whole city block, and the whole place is packed full of individual stalls. We entered the market and were immediately accosted by vendors on all sides. We finally made it to the middle of the market, where we set our meeting place for later in the day and then split up to go shopping. There were stalls for everything. A whole section of the market was dedicated to selling food, with a bunch of stalls selling fresh fish, meat, and vegetables, and even more stalls where you could sit and eat a meal. There were stalls selling shirts, ties, silk, coffee, small souvenirs, literally anything we could have wanted. For me, this meant one thing: Christmas gifts. I guess its never too early to start Christmas shopping, right? I picked up a bunch of things for my family (and more than a few things for myself, of course). I know they told us we would have to try hard to spend a lot of money in Vietnam, but believe me I was trying. I had to find an ATM and pull out more money halfway through the day. At one point, some of us went to the food section where some of the vendors had prepared food for us, but I was too busy shopping to eat. I've bargained at markets before, and I've never been that good at it, but I think I did a pretty good job. At one point, I got a bargain price on a shirt after repeatedly insisting that I literally didn't have more money than what I was offering (I ended up pulling out my wallet and physically showing the shopkeeper my lack of cash). Suffice to say, it was a good morning. By the time we left, I was already planning a second shopping trip.
After the market, we went on another company visit to VinaCapital. The company was located in one of the fancy skyscrapers downtown. We sat down in a very nice conference room for a really cool presentation. We heard a couple different presentations, one about the actual company and one about VinaCapital Foundation. The company is an investment and asset management company. They invest in a bunch of small businesses in Vietnam, and help those companies grow and be successful. VinaCapital is the NGO arm of the company. The main company covers all the overhead costs, which is cool because it means any donations to VinaCapital Foundation go directly to their projects. They do a lot of work in medical health and education in Vietnam, mainly working to provide medical services to poor, rural communities that would not have access to the services otherwise, as well as providing education for women in these communities. Women in many rural communities in Vietnam do not have many opportunities to get educated, and VinaCapital Foundation is working to change that. It was really cool to hear from a company in Vietnam that is actively working to help people's lives, especially in these rural villages.
That night, most of us went out with our Vietnamese friends for dinner. They took us to a restaurant for Banh Xeo. The dish is basically a giant folded-over pancake, made of eggs and vegetables and stufed full of meat and seafood, and it was probably the best thing I ate all trip. They probably brought out a couple dozen of these things, and we ate all of them, dipping them in a sweet sauce. Incidentally, they first brought out the sauce right after our friends had finished talking to us about tea, so of course Sam immediately assumed that the sauce was tea and poured himself a cup. We all had a good laugh at his expense.
After dinner, we went out to a Karaoke place. We were expecting something like a Karaoke bar, but this place had legit rooms that they rented out to groups, so we were the only ones who had to suffer through our mediocre singing. We all had a good time there.
Before bed, we spent some time going over our plan for the next morning.  The next day, Tuesday, was the day of our company visit, and we all wanted to be ready. Then, it was off to bed.