BP Office

Tuesday morning, I made my way to the BP office. Again, it was a very pretty campus and it was fun to meet more of the people that I had talked to and emailed with so much with prior to my visit. They serve free lunch to employees at the office - all Vietnamese food of course, so I had a salad and lots of greens ... not much else for me to eat there - but then again, I am usually not looking for a big meal anyways. Later that night, I met Nina for dinner at a restaurant that was suggested to her by some friends who live in Berlin who are from Vietnam. The place was packed, and this was a Tuesday night! We didn't really know what to order but figured I would go with spring rolls (which came with all the ingredients and you wrapped it yourself) and soup. There was a Vietnamese family next to us and they had all kinds of neat food and the father could tell we were looking to try to figure out what half of it even was! He spoke English - he asked us where we were from ... Nina said Germany and then they looked at me and for the first time in my life I was a bit nervous to say what country I was from - although, everyone who knows me knows that I would NEVER not say America (or pretend to be from somewhere else), so I tell them I am from American and the wife next to me gives me a look of absolute TERROR, no lie. Of course, they start speaking Vietnamese and constantly keep staring at me - ironically they offered us some of their food to try but kept the conversation towards Nina but were watching me the whole time. It was very interesting - I didn't mind leaving that joint ... we also couldn't believe that despite having big fans in that restaurant, our clothes were again wet and that we would need to shower again before going to bed! Wednesay came and I was ready for a big training day. I put on my suit that morning; however, I knew that I wouldn't be wearing my jacket because of how hot it was even inside the BP office --- uh ... slight problem ... the shirt I had on underneath my suit jacket was short-sleeved. Usually, this would be no big deal but after I put on my suit and was buttoning up my shirt in the full-length mirror - I just busted out laughing - my temporary tattoo was in STYLISH form! Again, normally that wouldn't be a problem IF I was at home and had my entire closet of clothes to change into; however, obviously that was not the case (a little thing I didn't think about when getting the tattoo the weekend before in Bali). Luckily, I had another outfit I could wear - not a suit - but it would do. I conducted training to two groups that day and it was very enjoyable. The Vietnamese people were VERY nice and appreciative. I was given shopping tips from the locals and was invited by my clients out to dinner with them that night to a fancy restaurant. Later that night, I met two of my clients out for dinner and Dung ordered for all of us - he was extremely respectful of my diet and ordered appropriately. The restaurant was beautiful and the food was very good; however, about 20 minutes into the meal, I started not feeling well. Now, this is not unusual given my gastrointestinal disease and the fact of the matter is that I don't usually feel all that great when I eat food anyways - however, this felt a bit different to me. I felt rude because I started to just taste things and not really eating them. I essentially left in the middle of dinner to go back to my hotel and was sick with food poisoning for the next 1.5 days ... uh, not so much fun!