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Published: August 2nd 2009
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Saturday, April 4th 2009
On Saturday I got up early, started several loads of laundry and decided to start packing that morning. My plan for today was to pack up, organise a box with things that could be sent home with some german friends (things I wouldn’t need on my trip, Japan, the states and Bangkok), have a small goodbye party for my local friends.
I am very glad that I started packing in the morning, because it turned out to be a bigger job than I thought. I have no clue how I ended up with this much stuff and had no idea how I was going to take most of it with me!?
Anywho, I had to stop the packing at about 2 pm, because I had to start getting things ready for the party. I had decided to make crepes (= french pancakes) and a fruit salad to go with them. I got them done on time and slowly all my friends showed up. It was so funny to see their faces when I explained to them what I had made and we would be having 😊 But all of them tried and ate it up bravely.
My goodbye party
They're so lovely! They brought me a surprise cake. It was really cute and yummy.
It was a wonderful afternoon and I was sooo happy that almost everyone could make it. Of course, it was hard to say goodbye and it was especially hard to do that with Ngoc, my best friend. We’ve gotten very close and she has helped me so much getting adjusted, explaining everything with an amazing patience. I’m going to miss her A LOT! I’ll hopefully be able to see her during my two days back in HCMC. CAM ON, Ngoc, for being such a woderful friend!!
After everyone had left I packed up a few more things and went to the german familys house. Mark and I chatted a while, before I headed back to the house. I finally got everything packed up quite late that night, so I didn’t get much sleep and hoped that I would be able to sleep on the eight hours bus ride the next day 😉
I had a lot of thoughts going through my mind when I layed in bed that night: Thinking of my HCMC-experiences and everything I had learned the past eight months. But also looking ahead, eager to
see how my travels would work out, what kind of people I’ll meet and what I will experience and see.
HCMC has definitely been fantastic. There was so much to see and do. People often asked me what I did on the weekends and it is hard to explain, since the things I do might not be interesting for others. But usually I either took trips (Mekong-Delta, Cu Chi tunnels, waterparks..., to mention a few) or just walked around the area of district 1, which was a lot of fun to stroll around expensive boutiques and hotels, eat all kinds of different food (Korean, Japanese, Italian...), watch people walking by while having a freshly made fruit-smoothie at a street vendor. In Germany stores are not allowed to be open on Sundays, so it was nice for me to experience a city with 7 Mio. neighbors and that never sleeps.
Also the experience of not only sharing a house, but also a room with other people of different ages, cultures and personalities has sometimes been quite challenging. I met a lot of people and have learned something from everyone.
These eight months have been a good chance to do some
networking, so maybe next time I travel I might know somebody in that country (e.g. Denmark, Sweden, Scotland, England, Ireland, South-Africa and Australia...)
I think this time has been the best school I could have ever “gone to”. It has shown me my strenths and weaknesses, it has given me more confidence and courage to at least try things and probably 99 % of the time I loved it! 😊 Being away from everything I know and was used to has also shown me what my values and morales are and what I find important for myself and cannot be replaced. I will definitely never want to spend Christmas without members of my family again!!
But I’ve also learned a lot from the children I’ve taught or met in an orphanage. They are incredible little people and each of them is so special and contributes to live in their way! Some of the kids I used to teach as a substitute just around the dorm still remember me even though I met them more than four months ago (When ever they see me they scream: “ A-N-N-I-K-A!!!!!” I’ll definitely miss that). All of the kids have impressed me with their
ability to still be happy, normal and attentive students, even though their circumstances are not even close to being normal. I’ve heard stories of either one or both parents having died, children being sold to factories by their family or having to walk to the dirty and noisy streets of HCMC every day to sell lottery-tickets in order to help the family income starting as early as the age of 6 years!
All of this has made a huge impact on my life and personality and I hope that I will NEVER forget how lucky I am.
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Betty Maxwell
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THANKS, Annika
thank you, Annika, for these final blogs. Like all of yours, they are most interesing and very sensitively written. What is next for you?