Internship trip of K62 Urban History students in Hai Phong

In the Faculty of History, besides traditional majors such as “Vietnamese History” or “Global History”, the major “Urban History” is also one of the popular choices of students. If you have loved the Faculty of History since high school, you must have had your own major orientation from the beginning.

Teachers and the internship group K62 Urban History at Hai Phong Museumg

My semester in what seemed like a very new major went really well. And like many other majors, we would have to go through a 1-week internship together. Before the trip, I was both worried and excited. Worried because I was used to living alone, I was worried that collective life would make it difficult for me to integrate and work with everyone, and excited because although Hai Phong - the city where we would go for the internship - was not a strange place, but when I went there as an intern, I had no idea what was waiting for me ahead.

Hai Phong in the eyes of Urban History students

Hai Phong still appears as the Hai Phong that I used to know. The same streets, famous places like theaters, museums, etc. that I had visited in the past. I thought that if this internship took place in a different place that I had never been to, I would be more excited. But it is true as people say, when our approach is different, the things we get back are also different. Instead of sitting in a car or cruising through the neighborhood by motorbike, we surveyed each street with our own two feet during the internship. Although it was quite difficult for a lazy person like me, my experience with Hai Phong was really interesting and rewarding.

Teachers and students of K62 Urban History at Hai Phong Opera Houseg

I stopped to observe the buildings longer, more carefully. I crept into small alleys, into old apartment buildings that I had never seen before. Every time I came to a house or a villa, my teachers would stop and explain in detail about each brick. I realized that history is not only in the massive buildings or the relics preserved in the glass of the museum, but even the small houses carry history. Through what I witnessed and the teachers' detailed explanations, I felt like the ancient city of Hai Phong appeared before my eyes. I felt like I was lost in the flow of history, voluntarily and with great interest.

K62 Urban History students work at Hai Phong museum

In addition to field trips to the neighborhoods, I also met experts who only study Hai Phong in depth. Can you imagine what kind of stories someone who has spent his life studying Hai Phong would be able to tell you? I will leave it to your imagination, consider it an invitation to my field.

An indispensable part of the internship is the collective life with friendly and approachable people. I was a person who was shy about collective life before the trip. However, as each day of the internship passed, my feelings for the major class became closer and closer. We understood each other better and became closer. More than anyone, I know that the feelings I have are rare in the university environment. Therefore, I feel that my choice is right and I love the major of Urban History even more.

That is my story about Hai Phong from the perspective of an urban studies student. In the future, I may return to Hai Phong many times, maybe I will become a successful urbanist. The emotions this trip brought me are certainly unique and cannot be experienced again no matter what. It was and will always be an experience that I can never forget, even if the flow of time erodes my memory. Students, I know that most of you who enter the Faculty of History have your own direction, and perhaps you have never heard of the major of Urban History. But if you are also a directionless person like me, and after spending time reading my lines, some emotion has also ignited in your heart, then why don't you give this major a chance?