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Today was our last morning in Bangkok. We were sad to leave Bangkok but we're excited to see what awaits us in Vietnam. We flew to Ho Chi Minh City, which the locals still call Saigon, this evening. The flight was shorter than the flight from Albuquerque to Dallas but it entailed several more steps. When going through immigration a man waved for us to come to his booth which was labeled "wheelchair". We figured that since there were no wheelchairs that was why he motioned for us to come over. All the immigration officers were dressed in traditional green socialist uniforms. The immigration officer that checked me into the country kept staring at me with an eerie look. I was worried something was wrong but he didn't say anything. Then a lady in a wheelchair came up and this guy yelled at me and the others behind me informing us that it was a wheel chair line. By the time I went to get my luggage I was thinking, "Oh my god I haven't even been in the country five minutes and I've already messed up!" Then I realized that the immigration officer might have been staring at me weird because I look so different.
I didn't stand out in Thailand because there are so many European tourists but I definitely stood out in Vietnam. The Saigon airport was much more conservative than the airport in Bangkok. One of the students, named Nam An, in my class got to reunite with his dad, sister and girlfriend when we got here. He hasn't seen them in three years! It made me cry when they were reunited. His sister and his girlfriend get to hang out with our group over the days that we are here. Nam An is going to stay in Saigon for three weeks, after our group leaves, before school starts in August.
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