rice vodka and other stories

Today (well, yesterday), was our first full day of sightseeing in Saigon. We started off the morning with what we assumed would be a 45 min drive to the Nike plant outside of the city. If I thought the vietnamese traffic was hard core yesterday, boy was I in for a treat. Luckily, we made it to the plant before sundown, and were taken right upstairs to the board room where we were given a presentation on the Nike factory operated by a Korean company called PCC. The factory is the biggest manufacturer of Nike in Vietnam-the products alone consist of about 6% of Vietnam's exports in general (60,000,000 pairs of shoes in the last year, including my pink dunks which were made there in '03). We were then taken down to the factory where we saw every step of the shoe making process-from cutting the leather to sewing, to molding, to bonding, to lacing and then boxing. Most importantly, THEY WERE MAKING DOLLIE SNEAKERS (miss and love you). Regardless, I have decided though far from certain, my career goals do not include working in a factory.

Later that afternoon we toured around Saigon looking at some of the famous buildings there including the Reunification Palace and the Notre Dame Cathedral. TO MY 'SISTERS' GIRLS- I kid you not when I say that the man guarding the door there had Junice arms and hands and broke out in song (well, not that part). I almost peed myself, but the afternoon rain that comes WITHOUT FAIL every day at 4pm took care of the water thing for me. 5th period would never exist here. Also stumbled upon Marc Jacobs-HCMC and exchanged $50 into Vietnamese Dong (I know you're laughing). I am now a millionaire in Vietnamese Dong (seriously, stop laughing).

I think the most important lesson I have learned thus far: do not order a bottle of $5 Vietnamese whiskey at dinner. And don't think it will taste good. Certainly don't even think it will be whiskey. But what you CAN think is that it will be rice vodka that is SO dirty you'll wish you could pour a whole glass of Taaka down your throat. MLIA.