We filled out evaluations of the trip, and then went to the canteen at the university for our last lunch. It was the usual lunch, but I took a picture of one of the plates of fruit that we ate because I've never seen it before, but it tasted pretty good!:
After lunch, we had a free afternoon to do whatever we wanted. The girls headed back to the market to buy a few more things (like a tea set!) and then we went back to the hotel. We went to a cool frozen yogurt shop with some UEF kids before going back to the Victory to do some more packing. I was nervous that my stuff wouldn't all fit back in my suitcase and bags, but it somehow did. Still not sure if my bag will be overweight though...For our farewell dinner, we went to one of the Tourist Villages. I guess it was sort of like a resort area, and we ate outdoors. We had many dishes which we shared, and then the meal ended with pho (two in one day!) which was also good.
Several of the UEF students wanted to have a final "party with dancing and singing", which turned out to be karaoke. The dinner went later than we though and we had to pay our room fees (laundry, drinks & snacks, etc.), so 4 of the guys went to meet them and the rest of us left when we were done dealing with the rooms. Right as we were leaving, Phuong arrived to say goodbye and give us a few gifts. We also said goodbye to Tin one last time. We walked instead of taking a taxi because it seemed close, though it took longer than expected. Finally, we were half a block from the destination when the unexpected happened. Ashley, Julie, and Rayna were walking toward the front of the group and as they passed, two young guys on a motorbike were sitting in the dark off to the side of the sidewalk so we couldn't see them. But once they passed by, the guys started the bike and turned on the headlights. Andrew, Sarah, and I were at the end of the group, and the bike was driving right towards us, so we had to jump out of the way as they came towards us. As I jumped to the right, away from the motorbike headed right towards me, the passenger on the bike snatched the purse strap right off of my shoulder, and they sped off. They drove onto the road and were gone too quickly for us to do anything about it, and we definitely couldn't have chased them down. I lost my purse, digital camera, wallet, and some of the gifts that Phuong had given me. Sarah, Andrew, and I immediately walked back to the hotel so I could call my parents and ask them to cancel my debit and credit cards, which they did before they were used. The rest of the group went to meet everyone at the karaoke bar. Of course, all of this occurred literally 4 hours before we left for the airport to go home. At least my passport was not in the purse! I was both sad and mad, but at least no one was hurt. I have since replaced my driver's license (which was in my wallet) and the cards, and I found the same purse online. As for the camera, it's long gone, but fortunately Mike had taken my memory card just a few hours earlier to upload my pictures on Justin's external hard drive for everyone to copy on their laptops. So, I lost the camera, but still have all but about 30 pictures. There was really no point in filing a police report, especially since we were leaving in 4 hours at that point, so I just continued packing. We hung out in Rayna and Julie's room, sharing all of the pictures. With everyone's together on the hard drive, I think we have something like 2,000 pictures! Though the robbery was scary and put a damper on the evening, I still enjoyed hanging out with everything one last time.
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