Dorm Life-Part II--Boy's Rooms and Cafeteria!

Since many of you sent me messages about the girl's dorm rooms....I decided to give the boys equal time! And while I was out trolling with my camera, I also visited the cafeteria.

About 9am today (Sunday) I met one of my male students and three other girls from my class. We walked the 50 yards or so from my room to the boy's "dorm" area. The boy's area consists of a series of one story buildings. Below is a picture of the dorm area and my student Canh. He is the only male student in my class. The girls adore him...and I do too!


Six boys share this the small space. There are three sets of bunk beds on each side of the room. There are no dressers or any storage space for clothes, books or much of anything. Despite this, the room was very tidy and neat!


I wanted to see if the boys had any mattresses or other way to make their beds more comfortable. As you can see below...the answer is no! Just a board and a very thin grass mat.

Below is Canh on his bed and in his "personal space" in the room. Note Truman the Tiger on the wall behind his bed! I helped one of my MU colleagues at a recruiting fair several months ago and admissions sent a few boxes of materials. We had some Trumans left over and it wasn't worth sending them back. So I kept them and handed them out as my present to the students at my final class on Friday. As you can see, they are very popular!!!

When I walked into the room area one of the students was still sleeping--and I woke him up (sorry guy!)...and snapped his picture when he emerged from his blankets.


Lastly, I took a picture of the guy's kitchen area. They have a few dishes and a large bottle of water. I think most of you are aware that everyone has to drink bottled water in Vietnam. The water system is not safe for drinking. Thus the large water bottles are everywhere...including my room! Behind Canh is the boy's bathroom. I looked at the door...the bottom half was rotted off and missing. That made me quickly decide not to ask to see their shower and toilet facilities. I think I know what was behind that door and I bet it wasn't pretty! And lastly, a photo of our whole group outside the boys room!



THE CAFETERIA!
I shared some emails with Frankie, head of MU Residential Life over the dorm pictures and he said he thought that Julaine, head of Campus Dining would like to see what her competition is in Vietnam!

There are two cafeterias here....these are pictures of what is called "Kitchen 2"..the better of them. I stopped by around 10am...just as it was opening for lunch. I think lunch runs from about 10am to 1pm...but am not quite sure. Dinner starts around 5:15pm and runs until about 7:15pm. Since it is very, very early on a Sunday, few people had arrived.



The food area consists of two areas. The first is a "food line" where you grab a tray and then pick small plates of food. The choices are many. Below is a picture of "Nem" or spring rolls...3000 dong or about 18 cents. Actually each item you pick is 3000 dong per small plate. You also get a bowl of rice...which I think is free. I can't quite figure out the pricing in this place!



The other area where there is food is more of a free-for-all. You start out at the plate or plastic box area. Many kids eat in their rooms and get their food in a "to go" box. I typically ask for a plate. The guy at the plate station opens a HUGE styrofoam box in front of him and dumps a HUGE pile of rice on your plate. Then you move to what I call the "look and point" area. You look at what is there and point. Each time you point at something...plan on 3000 dong. I usually get the stuffed tofu and one or two types of vegetables. This means I get about 3 small pieces of tofu and a hefty helping of green vegetables.



You also can have soup with your meal. This soup is.....how should I say it.....interesting! I think it is mostly water with boiled green vegetables. I think it is pretty tasteless, but soup is served at most Vietnamese meals and this is a common type I often see. These girls are getting their meal to eat in their dorm room so they put the soup in a "to go" plastic bag.


....and finally, this is a typical lunch/dinner meal EVERY DAY! The same thing is served at both lunch and dinner. And the same food appears day...after day...after day. This plate has a few shards of pork, some vegetables, and lots of rice. The girls who purchased it were off getting their soup...so I was able to take a quick photo of their lunch. This probably cost around 50 cents. The kids are very, very poor (live on less than $20 a month) and so they don't get any drink with their meal. They typically drink nothing...but there is water available if they want it.



So...this is my local dining hall. I eat here about once a week, mostly when I am too lazy to head off campus looking for better quality food. When Phil was here, I think we ate here twice and he then dug in his heels and said "no more!". We never got sick from eating here (I do question the cleanliness) but we both agreed that the lack of spice was the major problem. The food had little taste. You could add chili and they had fish sauce...but no garlic...no salt...no pepper.

Well....this completes my food and housing report! I leave tonight at 8:30pm for my long trek back to Columbia. My bags are half packed....and my room door is open so I can enjoy the warm weather outside. It is about 75 degrees! I have been looking at the weather I am facing in Missouri in the next 24-30 hours and it doesn't look pretty!

I have a couple more blogs I want to get online and I am hoping to get those crafted this afternoon and early evening. My problem has been that everyone wants to do things with me-since I am a short timer here. Thus I haven't been "home" much and my blogging has fallen off a bit.