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Nothing much.

Studying Vietnamese, working on my teaching certificate, for teaching English.

I was going to take some time to come to Asia, and just had a trip planned to Vietnam originally, for maybe a month. I have been to a number of Asian countries, but never Vietnam before.

I was quite surprised.

Now Vietnam is NOT where you want to come if you are looking for a place like some other Asian countries, where guys run all over getting drunk, boinking the local ladies and the usual.

That is NOT what Vietnam is about. Do not come here if that is what you are seeking. You will waste your time, inflame the locals, and not enjoy yourselves.

But I was quite surprised by how Vietnam is. There literally, and I mean this, seems to be zero racism here.

I mean that.

It took a while to figure that out. But there just is not.

In other Asian countries I had noticed a sort of reverse racism. But not here.

The country is poor, there is a pretty large population for the size of the country (very dense population, at least where I am) but the fact than almost everyone drives a motorcycle keeps the space issue at a minimum.

That, and the fact that quite a lot of day-to-day life happens outside, with others, is quite interesting.

Vietnam has changed an enormous amount, since the war. That is what I learned immediately. I was actually too young to be drafted before the war ended. But I remember seeing news coverage about it, and was starting to think about it.

Then the war ended. The thing is here, there does not seem to be any active inkling still publicly, that there was a war. Sure there are places dedicated to remembering what happened, but the fact is that when a country wins a war, there is not any lingering resentment.

Now I know there are a whole lot of FReepers who fought here, many of whom have a whole huge lot they will be thinking, some saying, which might be completely at odds with what I am saying. I get that. I agree this is just one small impression.

But I have been pleasantly surprised thus far.

There still appears to me a security presence, you note that immediately because security guys and parking attendants, seem to have a quasi-military uniform, but in other ways there is virtually ZERO police presence.

Now there is monitoring of foreigners, no question, but in a lot of ways it is refreshingly free here. But I do not discuss or involve myself in local issues, or local politics. Just don’t.

It is however, quite interesting.

Still forming impressions. I like it so far.