Xin Chao! Hello everyone! It’s Margrethe writing from Hoi An. We are already in Vietnam – how awesome is that!! After a couple of weeks, we have now gotten to know the city a little better, and it is wonderful here. Having arrived on a crazy hot day, we initially all thought we were going to die, but luckily, we have now somewhat acclimatized to the weather. The sun is almost always shining, although it gets dark at 6 pm. Hoi An is a strange town: a mix of beautiful ancient buildings and newer, but shabbier shops and mini marts. All along the streets are signs that call for your attention, although none of it makes any sense to us: as we have discovered, Vietnamese language is very complicated. The people here are so friendly, and try their best to make themselves understood. Many of the locals have noticed that we are quite a lot of Scandinavian students who have come to live here, and are very eager to make friends, not least to sell us their touristy items. 70% of the people in Hoi An have jobs related to tourism, which one really gets to feel. Tailors are the trade mark of Hoi An, and you can find them anywhere and everywhere you go. Here we all travel by bike, which is both convenient and fun (at least I think so 😊).

We live only a 5 minutes ride from the Phan Chu Trinh University, and about 25 minutes from the beach and study centre. Our base is at the Balance Café, with lovely Mr. Vinh as our field manager. He fixes everything almost within seconds of asking, and we couldn’t love him more! In the weekends we have time to travel or just relax, which is great. Some of the places one could go include Cham islands, Da Nang or Hue (the two last are bigger cities not far north of Hoi An). A couple of students have also taken trips to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. To sum up the first few weeks, I would say it has been very eventful and we look forward to the rest of our time studying here together!

Beautiful ancient town

Boat trip along the river

My bike with the university in the background

Sunrise at 5.30

Study time/snack time at the beach

Our view from the top of Balance Café

-Margrethe-