I arrived Hoi An, after a short visit in Ho Chi Minh city, backpacking in Sri Lanka and India, as well as studying in Pondicherry through culture-studies in the spring semester. We were all welcomed in this beautiful country by Lunar New Year’s celebration, which is the most important festival of the Vietnamese people! Hoi An was festooned with banners which read ‘Chuc Mung Nam Moi’ (Happy new year), flowers arranged in every possible way, fruit trees, and lots of coloured lights and lanterns. Food stalls on several corners sold traditional cakes, fresh fruits, flowers and mut (candied fruits and jams), and the Vietnamese people were in a hurry to meet up with friends and family, as well as some did return to their homelands for family reunion.

For many of us this week has been full of new impressions! Communist flags swaying in the streets, sounds of scooters honking in a symphony along with enthusiastic karaoke singing people. There have been some surprising sights of live chickens strapped on the back of motorbikes and interesting looking food in the many Banh Mi (Vietnamese baguette) stalls.

After a week of breakfast at 6.30 am, lectures, coffee breaks, biking, lunch at 12 am, rainy days, short trips, and a welcome party, we have all gotten to know each other better. My housemates and the other classmates are all open minded and social, and there are representatives from all over Norway, as well as Sweden and Vietnam.

For me the first couple of days in Hoi An was rather rough. Despite the fact that I have been walking around the streets of buzzing Ho Chi Minh city, where the traffic is even more packed than in Hoi An and Da Nang (a city 30-40 mins away from Hoi An), I was unfortunately involved in an traffic accident. While walking across one of the streets in Da Nang I got hit by a motorbike and the back of my head clashed the pavement. Luckily, I had two of my classmates with me and we got a taxi back to the Hoi An. Then one of the culture studies staff drove me to the hospital in town. I was quite afraid that I was seriously injured, especially when I was brought to a CT scan to check if my skull was intact. In fact, my whole experience at the hospital was fairly frightening, mostly because I was in a bad condition in combination of a new environment and language barrier.

Well, luckily everything was normal and I just got a small concussion. A few days later I could enjoy biking around town with the others, who had already gotten their own bikes. Eventually all of us could welcome the weekend ahead of us, which I will write more about in the next blog post.

I hope you liked my first blog post – if you have any questions you’re more than welcome to ask!