(PINK?)For Huyen's thesis presentation she had to wear an "ao dai", the traditional dress of Vietnamese women. Your average Vietnamese girl doesn't actually own one of these fancy dresses so they have to rent them for big events. Yeah, kind of like tuxedos. Huyen asked me go with her to choose out a dress for her presentation.
The Ao Dai shop was a two story store stacked from floor to ceiling with silk gowns. The gowns come in every imaginable color with all unique designs on the front and back. Girls don't have to worry here about showing up to a party wearing the same dress as one of their friends since all the dresses -- at least at this shop -- were different.
On a side note, one of my favorite episodes of Seinfeld (or as my Dad thinks it's called -- Steinfeld) is when George takes naps under his desk at work. All of us get tired at work on occasion and want to take a nap but most of us aren't brave enough to throw a pillow on the floor and snooze off for twenty minutes. Well, in Vietnam they're a little more blatant about it. Sure, working in retail isn't the most exciting thing but check out this video I took at the dress store. These girls are either really tired or perhaps there was a carbon monxide leak in the store:
