The summer travel plans of a group of students from Ball State University took them far away from typical vacation spots.
From Hanoi to Saigon, the group immersed themselves in Vietnamese culture on a three-week research trip sponsored by the anthropology department.
The group of 11 undergraduate students, two graduate students and two faculty members returned to Indiana on June 8. This was the third trip to Vietnam by Ball State students.
Anthropology instructor Gerald Waite said the goal of the research was to create up-to-date, educational material about the past 20 years of Vietnamese culture.
The combined video and book project, "A Day With Mimi: The Modern Face of Vietnam," is about a day in the life of a 14-year-old Vietnamese girl living in rural Vietnam. It is a part of Ball State's immersive-learning experience and will be used to teach seventh grade social studies classes.
"The most interesting experience for me is always acquainting students with Vietnam, getting them to eat Vietnamese food, watching them around Vietnamese houses with Vietnamese families," he said. "The actual cultural experience is the most interesting part for me."
Senior telecommunications major Kristin Gibler shot some of the footage that will be included in the project's final video.
"It was an eye-opening experience," she said. "I have never traveled outside of the country, not even to Canada. Going that far away for the first time was very rewarding."
On a visit to Ha Long Bay, Gibler said she had the chance to make a three-story leap off of the boat she was on.
"That was probably the scariest thing I did," she said.
Gibler said that the research and filming experience she gained during the trip would prepare her for similar opportunities in the future.
"I learned so much that if I were to work on another documentary video, I'd be much more prepared," she said.
Freshman anthropology major Matthew Smith researched Vietnamese technology, including mopeds, during the trip.
"They're pretty much the national vehicle there," Smith said. "You can't even really describe it, there are so many mopeds on the streets and sidewalks. It's kind of equitable to us having cars."
Smith said he had waited to go on a trip like this his entire life.
"It was just so much of a chance, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go over and see a completely different culture from us," he said. "I grew up in the post-Vietnam era. I'd seen what it's done to people and I wanted to go over and see this place for myself."
Smith went shopping for family and friends during his free time and said that the Vietnamese market was an experience in itself.
"It's kind of similar to a fish market," he said. "It's covered in tarps and there's all these people with all these stalls, and you being an American, they know immediately and they're shouting for you to buy something."
Gibler said her first international trip gave her the "travel bug."
"It's really interesting and eye-opening to see other cultures that are different from your own," she said.
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