Một Hai Ba, Yo!

           Today we played a basketball and soccer game against the UEF students. We took a bus over to their gym (which was ungodly hot as it was open to the outside) and started warming up. Little did we know, we were going to be playing the UEF boys’ basketball team and boys’ soccer team in our games. We thought that we would be playing the students rather than actual, organized teams. Oh well.

Snowball and Evan needed a pre-game nap to get in the

right mindset. Their enthusiasm was spectacular.

            We played the basketball game first. Let’s just say, we are NOT the Dream Team. Nor will be confused with them anytime, ever. In fact, I am 90 percent sure that we could have been beaten by my 8^th grade basketball team. At any rate, the UEF team beat us (unsurprisingly). It was a lot of fun, but almost immediately, everybody was dripping with sweat.

            Once the basketball game ended, the soccer game began. That game was much more in our favor. In fact, we outscored the UEF kids by quite a bit. In fairness, it was 5v5 and there were only two soccer players from the boys’ team on the field/court at one time. The UEF students filled in the other positions. We ended up scoring multiple goals and I even had a nice upper 90 goal, but let’s be real, we knew I was going to score.  ;)

            After the game we exchanged gifts with our Vietnamese friends and took a whole bunch of disgustingly sweaty pictures. We then went to get lunch at some pho restaurant. It was alright. After we ate, we went back to the hotel where I immediately jumped in the pool. (Immediately is a figure of speech. I actually changed into a bathing suit pre-jump.) I then got out and went to the Ben Thanh Market one last time to get rid of some of my excess Vietnamese dong. Looks like everybody is getting a present back home. Hooray!

            Before dinner, we got dressed up and took pictures in the lobby with our Vietnamese professor and some UEF students. We then took a bus ride over to dinner. Our dinner was on a boat on the Saigon River.

           

This was not our boat. (Actually a 6-star hotel under

construction currently)

This was. Still pretty decent I'd say.

We ate dinner and cruised along the river with pretty spectacular light displays and buildings. The city is very pretty at night!

The Stark Tower on the left (not really) and the 

Vietnamese flag on the building to the right. (Part of

the building's light show)

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to meet all of these great people and to have these experiences, but that will be a separate post. Tonight was a lot of fun. It was definitely a great finish to this amazing journey! Now it’s time to pack and avoid sleeping until we catch the plane at 3AM. Cheers Vietnam!