'Cause We're Young and Reckless

Things I want to do in life:

1. See snow.
2. Go bungee jumping.
3. Visit Paris and Tokyo
4. Watch Taylor Swift live.
5. Go on an exchange  
6.  So many things

It's been two weeks (exactly 14 days) since I returned to Malaysia and I finally decided to write about my exchange in Vietnam. To be honest I was too lazy and I just spend all my time watching Adventure Time, playing dota and stuffing my face with oranges

As you can see from the list above, I managed to cross out another item off the things I must do before I die. Being an AIESECer I learn about how meaningful and life changing an exchange experience can be. It would be quite ironic for me to tell everyone so much and so awesome this program is and I did not go on an exchange on my own. So last winter, I decided to go on an exchange. Realistically I know if I don't go for it that moment I will not go for it ever again. Thus in order to make the exchange a reality, I have to overcome a huge barrier

MONEY

I do not want to ask my parents to sponsor my exchange because it's something I felt I must earn for it myself. So last summer instead of eating my way around Penang like usual I worked for 45 days non stop to earn enough cash. I like to earn money, I dont like to work hahaha but I am thankful for that experience as I managed to improve my Mandarin tremendously. 

Okay it's been a while since I wrote and I am being very long winded. In short, I work my butt off during the summer and saved as much money as I can during my semester to ensure I can go on an exchange. 

So with my tight budget I decided to go on an exchange to Vietnam. I was not that picky on the project to be honest. I wanted to go on an environmental project but I end up getting selected for Global Passport, a national project hosted by AIESEC in Ho Chi Minh

Global Passport is a project which aims to improve the English speaking skills of the university students of Vietnam. Everyone speaks Vietnamese and the youths do not have much opportunity to speak English. By giving the students the opportunity to interact with interns from all over the world, they will be able to improve their speaking and also make them more competent in order to compete in the growing ASEAN region. 

So on 11th January midnight I departed from Penang to Kuala Lumpur. I arrived at 4am and took the 5am bus to the airport. I then took my 8:00 am flight and whoa la~

Goodbye Malaysia!

Hello Saigon! You can tell it's Sai Gon from the hazy air haha

So I arrived on 9:30 am Saigon time which is about one hour behind Malaysian time. In a way I traveled to the past!

Culture shock number one

Imagine you replace all the car in Kuala Lumpur with motorcycles and you get Sai Gon. Millions of bikes everywhere. The traffic is intense. 

Behind this yellow helmet is me holding my check in luggage and my hand carry bag and holding on to dear life. 

Sai Gon has a very high population. The city is very crowded and packed with people and motorcycles. Crossing the road would take tremendous courage. Okay I'm being a little dramatic but still the traffic is insane and it freaked me for a bit when I try to cross the road. 

Culture Shock Number Two

Everything is in Vietnamese. There is Chinese characters in somee districts

The medium of communication is Vietnamese so everyone speaks Vietnamese. It doesn't really help when you look like a local so people tend to speak Vietnamese to you as well. Usually the students or the AIESECers will aid us when we order food or get around. I rely heavily on body language to buy food alone or getting directions. 

Everything takes a while to get used to so after a few days the traffic don't look that scary anymore. After a few weeks, the language seems more understandable. 

Basically what I do everyday in Vietnam is going to classes from Monday to Saturday from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. Sometimes we have meeting to discuss and plan the class content and on Sunday we have activities organized by the project team. 

Content Meetings

Class is in session!

The topic for season 8 of Global Passport is Multiculturalism. Our job is to create fun and interactive activities which gives the student a chance to speak while using multiculturalism as the topic. The class began quite awkwardly initially but after a while the students start to settle in and it was just pure fun and joy. 

Aside from the classes there are other key activities for this project. The highlight event is Cultural Day which is similar to a global village. The class interns are tasked with organizing the content of the event with the aide of the students. 

Before I arrived in Sai Gon everyone know I was a VP -.- By default they selected me to be the Organizing Committee President tasked with handling Cultural Day. It was not an easy task. I only have 9 days to get everything done. I rely heavily on the students and put my faith in them. 

It was a very hectic week which I kinda forsaken my class responsibilities to focus more on this event. In the one week before the event I was physically in class but mentally away ahaha. 

Seeing how hard they worked with a tight deadline made me very proud of them

I am so proud and thankful to everyone who poured their time and energy and made this event a success. To be honest I was worried for a long time it might be a disaster because of the short time given but yay trust is essential. I put my complete faith in the team and they did not disappoint. 

I may be quite immature in the way I behave but I am quite mature in my thinking. As you grow older you will realize there is more to the world than just about yourself. Sometimes you got to put others ahead of yourself. I guide the students in a way that I let them do things on their own more rather than just taking orders from me. I am so happy to see this event became a very good chance for the students to interact and bond with the other interns. They really connect.

Post cultural day, classes resumed as usual but I can see the students are more closer to the interns whom they worked with.

And that was the aim of this project. It was to give youths a chance to speak English with people from all over the world. 

In the end of the classes there is a final exam. That time is when we knew we had made a difference. Some of the students love to speak but there are some who are always quiet. The quiet ones are the who surprise me the most in the final exam. They can really speak well! Nonetheless the satisfaction from seeing how much the students have learnt and grown in the past 4 weeks truly will be an eternal memory. 

While I was in Saigon I had the opportunity to stay with a host family. The other interns all stay in hostel whereas I opted for host family. The only down side is that I became a Cinderella. The parents usually sleep early and the daughter has school in the morning so I can't stay out late. But to be honest I've never regretted choosing a host family.

It gave me the opportunity to bond and learn with the family and I am very grateful for everything they have done for me. They do not know me at all but the treated me like family from day one. Even the son Hy who didn't talked to me at all at first come to my room and play with me whenever I am home. The mother, Ms Thuy will always try to talk to me even though there is a language barrier sometimes. The father, Mr Minh even trusted me with his motorcycle. And finally the daughter, Thy always open the gates for me when I get home from class and talk to me about random things. Living with a host family really made my exchange more awesome. 

So after 31 days, it's time to say goodbye to Saigon

Time to say goodbye to the hazy air

Goodbye to the students 

And goodbye to the interns 

It has been an awesome experience. Getting to know people from all over the world and knowing there are people out there who is more obsessed with Taylor Swift than you are. The most eye opening experience was actually my visit to a HIV afflicted children home. The caretaker asked us not to post any photos of the children on social media so I did not post any to respect his request. There was one girl who was quite attached to me. I can't speak Vietnamese but that did not refrain her from trying to communicate with me. The heart breaker moment is when she asked if I will come back next week and I had to say no :(

In short this exchange is awesome but to say it was life changing perhaps not so. Maybe it's because I'm living in the city so things were quite similar in Malaysia. The only main difference was the language. The people whom I've met made the exchange memorable. I will cherish the time we walked around aimlessly in the city or the time we became tourists and visit the attractions spots or just wandering around in the middle of the night looking for food. I will miss the busy city and the insane traffic but most of all 

I MISS BANH MI

'There is a reason God limits our days.Why?To make each one precious.'

Mitch Albom

Your life is your own story book. Do not fill the pages with regrets. It's a grim way to say it but the very last page is death. Thus before we reach the last page, fill the other pages with colorful experiences. It's the experiences that make up your life story.Where there's a will there's a way. All you have to do being brave enough to take the first step.