May 12: Pho, Crazy T-Shirt Lady, and the Rooftop Garden

Well, today could be called both interesting, amazing, and strange. First, interesting: Today was our first day of Vietnamese Culture classes at UEF, and we left the lecture having learned a surprising amount of new knowledge. Second, Amazing: This is in reference to the Rex 5 Star Hotel's Rooftop Garden, which my friends and I traveled to at night in order to listen to some wicked flamenco bands and take in the beautiful views of District 1. And finally, downright strangeness was the feeling when we encountered the "Crazy T-Shirt Lady". Our group was just cruising along the streets when we stumbled across a woman selling t-shirts. We all decided we had wanted some shirts, and we all decided that it would be a great time to implement our fresh bartering skills! She had originally wanted 60,000 Dong for each shirt, but i told her that was too expensive and asked if i could have 2 for 60,000. She had said yes (or so we thought) and so we all grabbed two shirts and paid. Right after paying she starts telling us that EACH shirt is now 60,000 a piece and starts confusing the hell out of us. In the end, only Laura was savvy enough to waltz away with the "two for the price of one" deal. It was a funny experience and it also shows that a.) street vendors are crazy and b.)we need to work on our bartering skills!