Buddhist Pagoda: Ho Chi Minh City Day Nine

Our first activity of the day was a culture class at UEF. We mainly talked about the history and the people. After finishing the lecture, we were able to ask the professor some questions. Because of the conflict in the East Sea, a lot of the questions were around the political relations with China. Even though he was a teacher, he still gave us his personal opinion about the conflict. Basically, he said that although the Vietnamese do not like what's happening in the East Sea, they don't hate the Chinese people in particular. This political view of hating only the government of a foreign country is a lot different from how I see it in America, where we hate a country as a whole if we are in a conflict with them. After the classes at UEF, we visited a Buddhist Pagoda within walking distance from our hotel.

Inside they had all kinds of ancient artifacts and displays that were important to the religion.

What's crazy is that, even though it is so close to our hotel, it's extremely important historically. Back when Buddhists were being persecuted, Thich Quang Duc marched from this pagoda to a busy intersection, where he then set himself on fire in protest to the persecutions. After the pagoda, we visited the memorial at the intersection where this occurred. The memorial was huge and extremely ornate, with a mural depicting the events.

Even though Buddhists were persecuted back then only a few decades ago, Vietnam seems to be pretty open to the different diverse groups now. At an ethical point of view, it seems like Vietnam has developed a lot since then, since many people were offering respect at the memorial, even though they probably weren't Buddhist. After the pagoda, we had dinner at a Vietnamese Barbecue atop a roof. There, they had live shrimp which they skewered for us to grill. We also grilled goat tit and okra at the table.

 After the dinner, I spent time at the hotel talking to a few of the Vietnamese students that were at dinner with us. Since it was more relaxed, I asked about her social life to get a better sense of the lives of Vietnamese teenagers. It seems that many teenagers in Vietnam enjoy going around the city with their friends eating at different places, but one of the biggest things in their social life is studying. It seems that even when relaxing, they put a lot of effort into preparing for exams and working. Even though we do this somewhat in America, I feel like they put a lot more emphasis on improving their professional resume, even when they are at home. After talking for awhile, I got ready for bed to rest up for the next day.