We sat on long benches in the middle of large flatbed trucks with 50 of our closest friends as we trundled along a lightly paved road in the fading dusk. Our night safari tour guide at Cat Tien National Park stood at the front of the flat bed, leaning on the back of the cab of the truck, his searchlight scanning the landscape and the lower branches of trees that sometimes came rather close to our heads. Large termites, drawn to the light, joined our tour.

They landed in people’s hair and pelted us on the forehead and cheeks. We should have known that this would be our closest wildlife encounter. But no one wanted photos of the bugs. Cell phones were trained on the landscape beyond, where we occasionally spotted deer – large and small – grazing in the wide-open grassland. I only managed to get photos of the termites.

I didn’t know it was possible to sink into mud up to your knee caps and still pull yourself out again. But mud at the bottom of a fish pond is fully mixed with water, and apparently, walking around in it can stir up the critters who live there (shrimp, in this case), and give you a chance of catching them with a wicker basket.

I did not imagine that learning traditional fishing techniques of the Mekong Delta would be part of our Fulbright orientation. Especially not when it followed two days of meetings with US Consulate officials, including the US General Consul, Susan Burns, and many of her section chiefs. We were briefed on economics, politics, safety and health. We met with representatives from the Public Affairs section, who are very interested in our work here, building ties with Vietnamese universities. It was truly exciting to learn about Vietnam from the perspective of Americans who have been working here.