Youth Conference: An Overnight Camping Trip

By Thu Pham

One day my host father asked me:

- Have you ever gone camping?

- Yes, we had a barbecue and slept in a fancy hotel! – I responded.

He laughed at my misunderstanding of the word ‘camping’.

- That’s a vacation. Camping includes sleeping outside, Thu. – My host father corrected me.

A few days later my host-mother bought me a Youth Conference ticket. It was a non-technology camping trip organized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with the purpose of making teenagers appreciate what they have.

The throughout topic of the trip was the moment the biblical character, Lehi, and his family left their city for the Promise land. On those first days on a fallow land, without anything such as food, warm clothes and shelter available, they started a new life. So the main point of the trip is to experience the hardships of living in the wild, just like Lehi’s family lived long time ago.

 Spending one night sleeping outside taught me a lot. My bone felt frozen even though I was under four layers of clothes! Although we had sleeping bags under thick sleeping pads, comfortable tent and abundant food, everyone still felt like they could not bear that outdoor life anymore. The worst part was the bathrooms! They were the most meager bathroom I have ever seen!

A comedy tragedy happened right in one of the bathrooms. A girl was in a bathroom whose door could not be locked, leaving outside of the door the sign ‘green’.  My Chinese host brother, seeing the green sign, opened the bathroom door and saw the girl sitting on a toilet! Strangely, both of them did not feel even a little bit uncomfortable on telling everyone on the camp about the embarrassing story. 

None of us took any shower during the two-day trip. We had no cell phone, no TV, no heaters. Therefore everyone could not wait to get home. Whereas back in time, Lehi’s family and maybe our ancestors had lived all their lives like that, they didn’t even have light at night!

 The more I think about the hardships those ones had dealt with, and how transcendently they had lived without any help of modern equipment, the more I appreciate everything I have. It was the most exhausting trip I have ever made but I am glad I did. That trip taught me the important values of friendship and solidarity as well I gave me the motivation to change my attitude toward my life.

My Final Theater Project

By Mirian Fonkam

The video below is my end of year Theater project. Our assignment was to present to the class some sort of art which demonstrated our own work. For example: Singing, dancing, playing instruments, dancing, producing a video, making a theater presentation... OK, I think you get the point. 

A few days from my presentation, I decided to make an honest commercial about my school's Exchange Program, inspired on my favorite YouTuber's video: nigahiga's Honest University Commercial.

Of course, my video wasn't good as his, but it was quite fun. And more, I get to keep it as souvenir of this amazing experience that has been studying abroad!

 

Exchange in America: Expectation vs. Reality

By Thu Pham and Mirian Fonkam

It has been only eight months of studying abroad in America, but looking back it’s such a long way I’ve been through. Experiencing so many things during my exchange program made me come up with a conclusion: there is a huge difference between the expectation and the reality of being an exchange student in America.

About eight months ago, I was getting prepared for the most important trip of my life. Three travelling bags, a mind full of thoughts and five thousand dollars cash... I had never seen, felt or touched so much money and I guess majority of the teenagers too. But one thing I can assure you: you would never desire the awkward experience I had with that money…

­- No mom, you don’t need to do that! – I begged her – I can handle it, I promise.

- No, Thu. You’re clumsy. Trust me, I have known you for longer than you have.

            She knot the thread firmly, finishing sewing the five thousand dollars in the inside part of my jeans. (OMG, this is so shameful!) Yes, you got it, that part of the jeans…

            The fight to the land of opportunities took 11 hours. Quite long. The people around me were either watching movies or sleeping with their mouths hanging open. But I, in a mix of the traveling anxiety and the discomfort of sitting over 5k, spent the whole time imagining how fantastic my life would be. I wanted to make it perfect from the moment my feet touched the Nevada ground.

            This is how it was going in my mind: no control of parents, money in my hand, I can go everywhere I want and buy anything I like. Freedom! It’s a country of freedom, I can do whatever I want.

            School in Vietnam starts at 7 am and ends at 5 pm plus tutor classes, which are 3 more hours. While, school in the US starts at 8 am and ends at 3 pm! I would have the more free time and that was heaven for me.

From left to right: Thu Pham, Mirian Luzia and our friends: Jeannie Ding and Natalie Carrion.

             Nevertheless, things never go perfectly as you wish. It was like I was born again but in another country. I started to learn many new words to communicate with people, because my personality can’t bear being considered reserved. I don’t have that much free time as I imagined: learning new words seems to never end, no matter how much time I spend on it! Talking about spending, when I got here, I was forced to give all the 5k to my aunt, because my Vietnamese parents don’t trust me managing that amount of money. As for freedom, well I do have more freedom than when I lived with my parents. I can sleep as long as I want to. I can skip meal or I can eat a double meal without being scolded. I like to wander around the shops, food stores, parks or the neighborhood, it a pleasurable habit. But in America, especially in the city of Las Vegas, you better stay indoors if you don’t have a car.

I have never lived far away from my home town, it’s the first time I went away from my parents’ arms. And it’s so far away! Sometimes I wonder why I’m here, in this unaccustomed country. The more I recall my naivety over how much I wanted to go to America, the more I want to go home now.
            But at the same time, things are not bad for me. It’s actually very wonderful. My mom, my dad, my old teachers and my friends all said that I’m so lucky to be living with such a nice host family. They treat me like their child. Sometimes I feel kind of bad because I’ve never got scolded for anything but their kids get yelled at a lot! They have to do more household chores than me; they have their parents, especially their mom eyes on them every single second (OK, I’m exaggerating).

My mom did that to me, all the time, when I was back in Vietnam and it extremely annoyed me. But when I went away from her, I really miss that annoying feeling, the feeling from being yelled at, the feeling from her restrictions, her angry glance whenever I broke her rules… I miss them so much and I wish there’s somebody just like my mom next to me, accompanying with me forever and wherever I am!
            It is like I want to unite the two universes, but that is impossible. To stay or not to stay? To go or not to go? To be or not to be? I’m clearly so confused! And that is the reality of being an exchange student.