Some more information...

I realize that I didn't provide much information on what I am doing in Vietnam, and what my training has been about. This is partly because I don't really know what I am doing yet and partly because I suck at introductions and explaining myself - my apologies.

So I have been in Ottawa since Thursday doing training which involved logistics such as safety while in Vietnam, as well as a number of discussions and activities to help explore international development and multicultural interactions. We are a very diverse group of students from different provinces, backgrounds, and faculties so it made for some interesting perspectives and conversation. Everyone also gets along well so it should make for great learning experiences and good times overseas, especially once we double in size with the addition of 20 Vietnamese students. I love Ottawa and had a chance to walk around downtown and visit the Museum of Civilization which was awesome! I highly recommend checking it out if you are here, and it's free on Thursdays! I also took in game 5 (thanks goodness Vancouver pulled it together) where I made friends with some Ottawanians (?) in the busy bar. We also have already celebrated a birthday with one of the seminarists and have 3 more occurring over the next 6 weeks! It's been fun, but we are all antsy to take off tomorrow morning.

Once I am in Vietnam I will share more about what I am doing, as we will learn more about our research projects once we arrive. We will be in two different provinces (one focusses on tourism and the other on agriculture) doing interviews in the regions with businesses, colleges, youth, etc. in an attempt to guide programming and job training in order to help young adults be more competitive and better equipped to enter the workforce.