Hanio, First Impressions

I arrived in Vietnam yesterday morning local time. After a 13 hour flight another 2 and half hour one and an 11 hour time difference my body was wanting sleep and my internal clock was out of sorts. We were greeted at the airport upon arrival by our Vietnamese counterparts for the next 6 months . All of them have decent english skills while a few are nearly fluent, thank goodness since all of the Canadians have very basic knowledge of Vietnamese.
 The first thing to him me when we left the airport and made our way to the hotel was the speed of everything. There were so many motorcycles going everywhere with a seeming disregard for order. Motorcycles are the main form of transportation that are used for everything, from people mover to motorcycle movers. Cars have only been available for import in the last few years which means they are all new and shiny but few and far between.
After checking into our hotel we had a wonderful lunch of spring rolls, clam soup, baguette, cucumber salad and fried tofu. For the afternoon we did icebreakers and some basic Vietnamese language at the Communist Youth building not to far from our hotel. After a dinner of chicken, fish, salad and rice I fell asleep by 7 with my computer still on my chest. With 12 hours of sleep in me, I woke up amazing hungry and had a huge breakfast of baguette, cucumber and eggs with hot sauce. The coffee they brought us was very strong and must have been made with sweet and condensed milk. It was one of the most delicious things I've ever had, everyone in the group asked for seconds.
This morning we went around to a few museums where uncle Ho lived and saw his grave. We then came back for another amazing meal. The food has blown me away. I had been introduced to Vietnamese cooking in Vancouver a few years ago but am so surprised at how delicious everything is. The people have been so kind so far, we are greeted with such kindness everywhere. It is also very interesting to be watched by everyone.