My ONU email still isn’t working. I have gotten comments on my note on Facebook, but I had tried all of those things before. My account is seriously nonfunctional. This means that if you want to get ahold of me, you can use the account I posted on Facebook (or ask my parents, because they have it [don’t leave out my middle initial!]). Otherwise, don’t expect to be able to contact me. If you’ve emailed me recently and I haven’t written you back, be patient. A reply will come during the stretch I have between Thailand and India.

If you leave me a comment, please leave me a name or let me know you’re a parent or alum or whatever. It’s nice to know that when I’m reading them.

Vietnam and Cambodia were intense for me, but I kept most of the reflection parts to myself. I learned a lot about myself in Cambodia, both good and bad. Somewhere in the midst of traveling throughout the world and living on a ship, I’ve managed to find my voice to stand up for myself and others, which if you know me, you know I never really had before. I fell in love with Cambodia despite the major SNAFUs in my trip. I really debated on what information to share with you from my journal. This was the first time that it has been so difficult to decide what it just too personal to be shared with strangers and what actually needs to be shared with strangers. I also debated what to share about the SNAFUs that occurred during the trip, especially because I know that people from SAS read these, but I shared everything in that regard.

Just some information on Cambodia:
The top 3 causes of death:
1. HIV
2. Motorbike accidents
3. Landmines

In 1991, when the removal of landmines began there were over 10 million. At the present, there are still over 4 million lurking throughout the country, severely injuring or killing the innocent.

When the Khmer Rouge was in power, they killed their own. They slaughtered people just because they were educated or wealthy. I wish I had more information to give you this. If you continue reading, you will understand why I can give you so little information on the genocide that devastated this beautiful country in the 1970s.

Sept. 25, 2007 (Tuesday?) Well, it’s A8. That’s what matters.
“It’ll be lifeboat Survivor, but we’ll just vote Creeper off.”
En route to Vietnam

The morning started the same as always. I went to the computer lab to check my email, but couldn’t because luminis was being retarded. I set up a new email account, and then I informed my parents. Hopefully they remembered that, because now, even 12 hours later, I still can’t get into luminis. I waited for Lindsey so we could go to breakfast together like we do every morning, but she never showed, so I went by myself. I didn’t go quite as all out as I usually do. I did start malaria medicine today. After breakfast I tried in vain to check my email again, because I wanted to see if my Dad had emailed me back about my ATM card. It was to no avail. I decided to go back to my room to work on readings for a while. I got myself caught up and ahead in oceanography. I read the ridiculously long China reading we have to do for Global Studies, not that it’s going to help when it comes to the exam.

I met Nicole and Bo for lunch. It was Taco Day! To top it off, they had chocolate mousse. I wanted to eat a ridiculous amount, but I didn’t have enough time before class, or so I thought. In oceanography the professor was late because he thought that class was at 12:30 rather than 12:15. The lecture was on the properties of water, which I’ve heard about a 1,000 times since I was a biology major and we learned it in chemistry and biology. It made it a long class for me, because it had been drilled into my head so many times already. After class I talked to the professor about the practica I have to do. I didn’t realize I was going to end up at Tai O, so I didn’t clear it with him ahead of time. He said we had to get his ok before we went, but I thought it was worth a shot. He told me it was fine, so that’s 1 down, 2 to go. I also got the Bangkok Aquarium cleared.

I came back to my room and my cabin steward hadn’t made it to my room yet, so I told him to just take the day off from our room. I got a lot more work done, and then when I was out of things to do, I decided to take a nap before the lifeboat drill. There was a lifeboat drill at 5:30, which cut off a lot of people for their regular dinner time. I went at 6:30 for family dinner. My ‘dad’ was seasick and left almost as soon as he got there. Others in our group were pretty seasick. Out of the nine of us, only 4 showed up and stayed. Dinner tonight was nothing impressive, but dessert was good. I talked to my ‘mom’ about getting to the market in HMC and about the trips I am planning on taking. She’s been on the trip to the Tunnels and Cao Dai Temple before and said that they it was definitely a trip worth doing.

The cultural preport tonight was very good. It was much more serious than any of the other cultural preports we have had. First the interport student spoke. He was interesting, but for me the good part was the panel discussion that they had afterwards. Four professors talked about the Vietnam War and how it compares to the war in Iraq. One professor spoke on his experiences being drafted into the Vietnam War. It was a heavy discussion. It gave me a lot more to think about than I expected to get from a cultural preport. One of the professors discussed the hidden motives behind the entry into a conflict in Vietnam and about the hidden motives behind the entry into the war in Iraq. It was really thought provoking. I’m not sure why we even entered into the war in Iraq. I know they said it was to find weapons of mass destruction, but it is obviously more than that. Oil? Probably. Other financial reasons? Probably. But I don’t know exactly. I’ve never thought about it before, but it bothers me now to think that I don’t really know the reasons we’re there. One of the professors spoke on the difference between a just and an unjust war defined in Biblical terms, and that the only wars we [America] lost were wars that did not qualify as just. My ship ‘dad’ spoke on the parallels of the wars. His perspective was very interesting, as he is from the Middle East. The panel was definitely anti-war in Iraq. I have been anti-war in Iraq because it seemed like the war was pointless, that it was just a losing battle. It never really occurred to me before tonight that there are actual real, concrete reasons to be against the war, among them that I don’t even know why we’re there. I’m not sure most Americans have any idea. Nicole, Kelsey, and I were talking about it after the preport and the only thing that we could really come up with was oil and weapons of mass destruction (that never appeared). If that’s it, if that’s the only reason for the loss of lives, then it’s not good enough. If there is a reason that makes this war worthwhile, why don’t we know what it is? Like I said, it was a heavy preport. It gave me a lot to think about.

Sept. 26, 2007 (Wednesday?) B8
“Ah, well, let’s move away from Chanel #5.”
En route to Vietnam

The usual routine today: check email (Luminis still isn’t working), have breakfast with Lindsey, work on readings before Global, go to Global. After Global I had Natural History. We talked about water today. The same lecture I got in Oceanography, the same one I have gotten about 15 before that. Needless to say, I was not surprised to hear about capillary action and that water is the universal solvent. If Doc Nancy had said that something extraordinarily bizarre had happened and water no longer had surface tension, then it would have been far more interesting. I ate lunch with Kelsey and Nicole. They had macaroni and cheese and french fries and brownies today! They are on a roll with lunch. Yesterday was Taco Day; today there were french fries. I’m sure that they aren’t going to make a habit of this, and I’ll be back to peanut butter sandwiches when we get back from Vietnam, but it was nice for now.

I had World Art in the afternoon. We have a quiz the next class. He said that it was going to be easy, but I couldn’t tell if he was serious. He was saying after class that we shouldn’t be on the ship studying while we’re in port; that being out in port and learning from our experiences there was far more important than studying for a test. I hope that he stays true to that. I have prepared for the quiz, but not as much as I would have if I were at ONU and studying in an environment more conducive to reading. But it’s hard to focus on work when you can watch for dolphins or planning out how to spend your first day in Vietnam.

Sept. 27, 2007
“The only time we almost died was the time we hesitated.”
Saigon, Vietnam

I woke up really early this morning to see the ship come through the river into Ho Chi Minh City. I watched it with Megan and Ashley, and eventually after watching boats for a couple of hours, we got breakfast. The ship was cleared by 8:30, so Lindsay and I caught the first shuttle and headed into the city. The shuttle stopped near a dress making shop, so Lindsey and I took a step in. I asked how much it was to have a dress made with the fabric that I wanted and it was only $45. It would have been less if I hadn’t picked the one of the most expensive fabrics. I picked out the style of dress I wanted; I wanted something exactly like what was on one of the mannequins. I paid half for my dress, and it will be ready tomorrow night. I’ll be in Cambodia tomorrow night, so Lindsey said she would go back and pick it up for me with hers.

From here we headed to the Ben Thanh Market. We walked around at first without buying anything just because we wanted to see what there was. They had almost everything you could think of at the market, from dried shrimps to Northface backpacks. I found a place that sold DVDs for a dollar, so I got a few (people who know me very well can interpret what a ‘few’ actually means). I got the complete series of the Simpsons for $10. I didn’t have a lot of money, mostly because I wasn’t planning on paying to have a dress made; I had decided originally that I didn’t want one. We ran into Kelsey, and we decided to get the shuttle back to the ship for lunch and to unload our things and get a little more money. When we got back into HCMC, it started storming, so we headed back into the market because it was covered. I got a few more things, but not many because everyone in the market had realized that SAS was in town, and the prices had shot up a ridiculous amount. It didn’t really seem like haggling helped very much. When we left the market it was still raining pretty hard. There was a hospital across the street from the market, and Kelsey and Lindsey needed to visit a health care facility for one of their classes. We walked over, and a doctor agreed to speak with us about Vietnamese health care straight away. We got input from several people. It was very interesting to see the hospital from the inside and hear the information they were willing to give us, compared with some of the information the citizens of Vietnam were willing to give. We stopped in a few shops on the way back to the shuttle. The prices there were much higher than earlier before, and I just wasn’t interested in paying that much for anything. Lindsey mentioned that she was a student, and the prices dropped back to the amounts from the morning. It was interesting. We came back to the ship by way of the shuttle, and I smacked my head pretty hard when I was climbing back onto the bus. By the time I got back to the ship I had a pretty bad migraine. I was feeling pretty miserably, so I didn’t go back out. I went up to the seventh deck and got a cookie, ate it with my Maxalt, and went to sleep.


Sept. 28, 2007
“I’ve lived there just long enough to pick up the accent.”
HCMC, Vietnam and Phnom Penh, Cambodia

I got up early to meet Ashley for breakfast, but she overslept, so I ate on my own. I noticed at the field office that it said my Cambodia trip was leaving at noon rather than 10:00, as the note I got on my door stated. I was already packed, so I thought I would send my parents an email. At around 9:25 I started to see people going into the Union, so I thought maybe I should go check to see what was going on. My group was meeting at 9:30, as I thought before I saw the sign posted at the field office. I sprinted back into my room to get my bag, tore it apart looking for my bug spray (I felt horrible leaving it like that, knowing that my cabin steward would be cleaning up after me). When I returned to the Union, I learned that the trip had been split into 2 groups because of flights, and the smaller of the two groups (mine) didn’t receive any recognition on the sign of postponed trips at all. We were told by Sarah, who works in the field office, that we would be joining the other group in Phnom Penh, that our itineraries were going to be the same once the later flight got in. This made me happy, as my friends were all in the larger part of the group, and I didn’t know anyone in my part of the group. We were given a copy of the itinerary, and went on our way to the airport. On the way to the airport, we were joined by the parents who were traveling with their kids on our trip. At the airport in Phnom Penh I found a Bank of Canada ATM machine which actually gave out US currency. I felt like I actually had a shot at being able to get money out, other than the $40 I had brought with me ($20 went to my visa and $10 went to water at meals because drinks weren’t included). Much like China, Hong Kong, and Vietnam, my card was rejected. I really wasn’t surprised, though I was disappointed. Once we boarded the bus in Phnom Penh we were told we were going to the Royal Palace, which confused me, because according to the itinerary we weren’t supposed to be doing that until the next day. I got a new copy of the itinerary from a man I believed was a parent, because we were not told who he was. I was also under the impression that our trip leader was one of the RDs, but this was incorrect. I later learned that we had no trip leader at all on our bus. The itinerary looked like we were not going to be meeting up with the other group at all, except for dinner a few times. We were on separate flights to Siem Reap, and our schedules there were completely different. Not only that, we (the small group) were missing the Killing Fields. I was very disappointed, but we were still going to the Genocide Museum, according to the itinerary, which was really the reason I wanted to go on this particular trip.

The Royal Palace was beautiful, even in the rain. We then went to the National Museum, which was cool, but featured statues from Siem Reap and the Angkor Temples, so I wasn’t too busy paying a lot of attention because I was going to be there the next day. Outside of the National Museum was my first glance of a landmine victim. It really made my stomach turn a little bit, in this queasy “I can’t believe things like this actually happen” sort of way. It’s one thing to read about it or see a picture of it, but seeing it in real life just confirms in a completely concrete way that these things did and do happen. We then went on a cruise on the Mekong and then finally dinner, where I got to spend about an hour with my friends. I also ate ox tongue (it’s not good by the way).

On the bus ride back to the hotel, we were informed that there had been a change in our itinerary, that we were getting up earlier and going to the Killing Fields. I had assumed that meant we were going to go to both the Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields, but when I did the math in my head there was no way we could make it to both and still catch our 9:30 am flight, and everyone wanted to go to the Killing Fields. I asked the “overzealous parent” who I had learned was an ISE official if we were going to both, and he told me that we only had time for one, that this was what everyone wanted to do. I was devastated. The reason I paid $1000 for this trip was to go to the Genocide Museum, not the Royal Palace or the National Museum. I talked to the actual trip leader to see if I could switch to her group. As it happened, there was someone in her group that wanted to switch to mine, so it seemed perfect. The three tour guides all contacted the company to try to make this happen for both of us. The first time they got a ‘no’ answer, so they just kept trying. They made at least four different phone calls, and tried everything possible to get me on the trip I wanted (the trip I paid for), but it was to no avail. There was just no way I was going to get on that group. I was so disappointed, but there was nothing I could do. My group wanted to go to the Killing Fields (at least that was what I was told) and I wanted to go to the Genocide Museum. I was the odd man out.

Sept. 29, 2007
“What? You don’t want to see the skulls?”
Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, Cambodia

I ate breakfast with some of the parents on the parent trip. It made me really miss my family. It was lonely to sit with a table of people who all had someone else that they knew, that they loved with them. As I was talking to them, I discovered that they too had wanted the Genocide Museum, so I couldn’t understand why the change had occurred. That was about half the group, including myself. The ISE official’s wife saw me and asked the question listed at my title for this entry when she learned I was upset that I was getting the reason I signed up for this trip, the reason EVERYONE who signed up for this trip did. Going to the Killing Fields without the Genocide Museum was like going to the Peace Park at Hiroshima without going to the Museum. This probably doesn’t really mean anything to anyone who’s never been to Hiroshima, but while you get some feeling of the tragedy at the Peace Park, it’s the Museum that provides you with the information as to what really happened. It doesn’t hold back; you get everything. It’s horrible to see, but it’s so important to learn about, and the best way to learn is to see. The tour guides were so wonderful to me. They brought me a bunch of information on the museum because they knew how disappointed I was, and I think that they believed the museum was the more important of the 2 sites as well. I was very grateful, but it wasn’t a substitute for the real thing, which was so close, but I had no way to get to it.

The Killing Fields were another stomach turning experience, but truthfully, I didn’t understand what I was seeing. I knew that there was genocide somewhat recently in Cambodia, but not a lot of the details. I think most of us felt that way. We really needed the Museum to provide us with some kind of information about what really happened. I talked to more people who wanted the Genocide Museum and not the Killing Fields, so I really couldn’t figure out why we were there and not where the group obviously wanted to be. We proceeded to the airport, and I learned that the ISE official and his wife wanted to go to the Killing Fields so they requested the change from the tour guide without consulting the group of students and parents who each paid $1000 for the trip. I was livid. I’m not even sure livid begins to cover it. The Genocide Museum was supposed to be the highlight of the trip in Phnom Penh, and it was what all the students who paid for the trip wanted to see, so how dare 2 people that got a free trip be so selfish as to change the itinerary for people who not only wanted to see what they were promised, but needed to see for classes for practica! How dare they be so inconsiderate! To other people this probably doesn’t seem like a big deal, but to people who have taken this trip through SAS, you can understand how upset we were. That was what made this trip a must.

We arrived in Phnom Penh and went to the hotel for lunch and checked in. I was still seething with anger because of what happened. I knew that there was nothing I could do, but the Field Office and 2 horribly selfish individuals had really screwed my group. The 19 students and parents got no trip leader (meaning no one to talk to about the itinerary change when it occurred), were lied to from the beginning with the promise that we were joining the other group in Phnom Penh and following their schedule, depriving us of the knowledge we needed to make informed choices as a group so that we could see what we wanted since we had to leave something out (no one paid to see the Royal Palace; we all paid to see the Genocide Museum and Killing Fields and would have given up the Royal Palace and National Museum to see them, if we had been given any choice in the matter), and making arrogant choices incorrectly assuming everyone’s wishes. I was so mad that there are no words for it. As a group, the 19 of us were collectively screwed by the Field Office.

Anyway, still seething, I grabbed lunch and boarded the bus to go to Tonle Sap and see floating homes. They were nice to see, but it was not what I paid extra for. There was another trip that this was their schedule, and I paid extra money to go to Phnom Penh for the sole reason that I wanted to see the Genocide Museum. Back to the point: Tonle Sap was nice. While our boat was out, 2 little kids jumped onto our boat from another boat to sell us drinks. We continued going, and it happened again except this time a boat just pulled up next to us and the kids climbed onto the side. A little boy was selling bananas, but he wasn’t wearing any pants. The ISE official’s wife couldn’t get a good look to see if he was male or female so she asked. Everyone thought it was funny, and her husband deemed it necessary to take a picture, making sure to get the boy’s genitals in the picture. It was absolutely mortifying. How do you get to be older than 10 without realizing that taking picture like that are completely inappropriate without the parents’ permission, which he didn’t have. He just did what he wanted, which was a reoccurring theme.

From Tonle Sap, we went to Angkor Wat. It was amazing. I climbed up to the top of the main building fairly easily, but getting down was another story. There was a section with a handrail, but the wait to get down was almost 45 minutes, and I just didn’t want to wait that long. They say you should use the handrail because the steps are worn down, and if you slip because of the uneven steps, you’re going to be majorly hurting. I found a set of stairs that didn’t seem too bad, and I just walked down with no problems. I explored for a little while, just walking around. Every now and then I got stopped to take pictures with people. In China it was because I was blonde, but here I was with other blondes, and people didn’t want them in the picture. I couldn’t quite figure it out, but I went with it. After we got back on the bus I asked the tour guide about what it was that made me stand out like that. He told me that it was because I was so pale and pale is considered to be beautiful by many Cambodians. That was kind of cool and a complete reversal from the U.S. where I get laughed at for how colorless I am. When I went out to the buses, we got mobbed by kids selling postcards and bracelets. I wanted to get some bracelets for my pen pal classroom back at home. I asked one of the kids how much it would be to get 3 sets of 10, and he told me that it would be $5.00. I knew that everyone else who had bought bracelets were getting them at $1 per set of 10, so I found a different child to buy from, one that sold to me at the same rate as she did to everyone else. This made the first child start sobbing hysterically. He followed me around crying, so I just got on the bus, but he stood outside of my window and whimpered. When some more people started to get on the bus, the crying stopped and he tried to get the rest to buy from him. At this point I got back of the bus to look around a little more because we still had a few minutes and I wanted to get some postcards. The moment I stepped off I got the same routine everyone else had been getting, “Where are you from? [the U.S.], the capital is Washington, D.C. What state do you live in? [Ohio], the capital is Columbus, I am smart. You must buy from me.” If you bought from one child all the other children ended up trying to guilt you into buying from them. I really didn’t like it. I liked bargaining in China much better. The vendors are aggressive, but I can handle that much better than I can handle little children trying to make me feel so horrible that I buy from them.

After we left Angkor Wat, we went to dinner at a Cambodian sort of dinner theater. The food was really questionable. I have gotten pretty good at trying everything (in Cambodia, this means that I ate ox tongue), but the food was just not good, except for the 2 western dishes they had. It was really strange that their native food was no good, but the spaghetti was some of the best I’ve ever had. The show was alright, and probably better than anything I would have done on my own anyway, because I was running low on money due to the ATM machine not accepting my card. A lot of people went out that night, but I only had $8 left, so I just went back to the hotel and got some rest. We didn’t have an alarm clock in this room, so I set up a wake up call, but I had heard that they could be questionable, so my roommate let me use hers to set so I could be up for sunrise even though she was going to stay behind and sleep. My roommate for the trip was really cool about me being an early bird.

Sept. 30, 2007
“Just an FYI: the ants in Cambodia bite and it is not pleasant.”
Siem Reap, Cambodia and Saigon, Vietnam

I got up at 4 am to go to Angkor Wat for the sunrise. I was one of very few who did. The tour guide took the few of us that went to what he considered to be the best place to view the sunrise, but it was pretty evident from the clouds that we weren’t going to be able to see much. We did look at the reflecting pools and I had a little bit of time to explore for a while before going back to the hotel for breakfast. Breakfast was amazing. I had delicious Belgian waffles. After breakfast we headed back out and went to the Ta Prohm temple. This is the site where part of the movie Tomb Raider was filmed. I don’t really care for the movie, but the site itself was amazing. Trees were growing all throughout the ruins, and there were tree roots that were holding up some of the buildings and tree roots that were knocking down some of the ruins. I wanted to buy a couple more bracelets, but once I bought from one, I got hounded by all of the rest. I had to run back to the bus to lose them. Next we went to Prah Khan, which was also amazing, before heading back to the hotel for lunch. The time at the temples was fun, but there were a few times where it was awkward for me as a part of my group. The group was mostly parents on the parent trip matched with their kids and then a handful of us that didn’t have them. The parent group and their kids had bonded very well, but the rest of us didn’t really integrate. When they wanted a group photo, it was just awkward.

I wasn’t really hungry at lunch and I also wasn’t feeling very well. I had forgotten to bring my allergy medicine with me, so you can imagine that being in the jungle without allergy relief was not very pleasant. I just rested before checking out of the hotel, and then it was to Angkor Thom. We went to Bayon Temple, Elephant Terrance, and the Terrace of the Leper King. I climbed up the terrace of the Leper King; I was one of 3 to do so. When I got up, there was a landmine victim sitting up there. He started a conversation with me, and we just talked for a little while. I went back down with a lumpy sort of feeling in my stomach. I had just met one of the nicest, happiest people, and he was these things in spite of so much that he had lost. The group then went to the market very nearby, but my mind was still racing with thoughts from the Terrace of the Leper King. How could I buy myself a meaningless souvenir when there was someone who could use the few dollars I had left for food or something else he needed. I knew I had time, so I got a bottle of water to give to him, and sprinted back to the Terrace. I gave them man the water and the $6 I had left. He took the water happily, but at first rejected the money. He wasn’t begging or asking tourists for money; he was just there to have some conversation and work on his English. I insisted, and he finally took the money, and I ran back to the bus to go to the airport.

There was a Dairy Queen at the airport and a sign saying that they took MasterCard, so I thought I was in luck. When I went to pay, they told me that their credit card machine was down, so I canceled my order. The guy behind me ordered me an ice cream and gave it to me, because he heard me cancel my order. I ate my ice cream before going to the gate and waiting. My art history professor who was on a different Cambodia trip was on the same flight back as me, so I asked him a few questions about what the midterm was going to be like on the next B day. He was very helpful. I also started reading the book I bought about S-21 (the Genocide Museum) since I didn’t get to go. The flight back was uneventful. It took a long time to get back to the ship because of traffic, and we missed dinner. I went up to the pool bar and bought a few cookies before grabbing a much needed shower. Since I still wasn’t feeling very well because of my own stupidity, I went to bed around 11.

Oct. 1, 2007 (Where did Sept. go?)
“I think the most important thing is that as humans we do the most good that we can.”
Saigon, Tay Ninh, and Cu Chi, Vietnam

I got up around 6:30 this morning so that I could get ready, email my mom and let her know that I got back from Cambodia safely, and eat breakfast before heading out for my trip at 7:30. I did remember to take my allergy medicine. The bus ride to Tay Ninh took about 2 and a half hours. We stopped there for lunch, which was pretty decent. The main attraction in Tay Ninh was the Cao Dai Temple, which is where we headed after lunch. We got to view the noon service. It was interesting, even though I didn’t really understand what was going on. The carvings in the temple were beautiful. The statue and painting of Victor Hugo really seemed like an oddity to have in a religious building, but I did know that he is considered to be a saint by Cao Daism. After the service, our tour guide told us more about the religion on the drive to the Cu Chi tunnels. It was very interesting; the Cao Dai worship the eye. The prayer they were saying in the service was for those who had given their lives for Cao Dai, for those who died in the war, and for those who were still alive to have a better life.

The Cu Chi tunnels were about an hour and a half away from the temple, so I took a much needed nap on the way there. We got to see some of the traps the Vietcong used against the U.S. soldiers. We were allowed to go through the tunnels that had been expanded for us, and I was planning on it, but once I got down there, I saw some bats. I’m not really a big fan of getting up close and personal with bats, so I opted not to crawl through the tunnels. After everyone got done getting through the tunnels, we got to watch a movie about the war and the function of the tunnel system. It was really interesting to see these things presented through the Vietnamese point of view rather than the American point of view. I remember going to listen to Vietnam veterans speak when I was in high school, and the picture I got in Vietnam was unfathomably different from that. It’s hard to mesh the two views together; they don’t really fit with each other.

I slept on the way back from the tunnels to Saigon. The distance between Saigon and Cu Chi is supposedly only 17 km, but it took nearly 2 hours to get back to the ship because of traffic. The traffic must have been really bad, but I missed it because I took a nice nap. When I got back on the ship I turned in my landing card, got a snack from the Piano Bar, and got my review images for my World Art midterm that I have the day after tomorrow. Lindsey stopped by after she got back from Cambodia and she brought me my dress. She had picked it up for me earlier. It didn’t turn out like what I asked for at all, which was surprising because I picked out a design from a mannequin in the shop. Maybe I can get my Grandma to alter it for me, as it doesn’t even fit right.

I’m not ready for another day of class, but it’s here anyway. Doc Nancy is talking today in Global, so that at least should be interesting.