Day Ten: Wednesday

It was a monday, wednesday, or friday, so we headed to UEF for culture class and language class! The culture class talked a lot about the yin and yang aspects of the society, such as houses facing east vs west and how many gates are customary to have out front. It was interesting to me that the direction a house faces could influence it's value, since that doesn't happen in American real estate. Then we had language classes where we worked on learning numbers and phrases, though our favorite is "Mot Hai ba yo!" which is the Vietnamese version of a "1, 2, 3 cheers!" type saying. At the end of the class though, she told us there was a quiz on Friday, and some of (especially me, 'cause the Vietnamese kids always help me in class!) got nervous about it.

After lunch, we walked to the UEF administrative building, which was around the corner from the hotel. We walked the long way, and saw this cute restaurant with swings instead of chairs. When we got there, we met with Mark Oakley, who worked for the law firm Duane Morris Viet Nam LLC. He talked about new companies coming to Vietnam and how they go about getting different permits and permissions they would need. It was interesting to me that he wouldn't comment on anything political, even in our non-public setting, as the government in the country was communist and so it's not acceptable to speak your opinion regarding politics.

For dinner, we went to the Black Cat again, the guys reallly like their burgers. It was fun though. That night, we went to the Rex hotel's rooftop bar. No one wanted a late night since we had our soccer game Thursday morning. At the Rex, the singer started singing Sweet Caroline, which was random but so well timed! We all joined in singing with the Pitt lyrics which was veryyy fun. About half the group left and got taxi's back, but a few of us stayed a little longer. We ended up walking back to the hotel since it was such a nice night, and it was such a different experience to see the city at nightt.

Day Nine: Tuesday

Before we went to our site visit, we had breakfast at this french bakery we found last week. Its great because we can get 3 or 4 pastries for 2 dollars! Tuesday morning we went the the Vietnam version of the stock market. They were very busy since the morning was their busiest time, so our visit was very short. Afterwards, the van dropped us off at one of the malls/markets, so we could spend the morning shopping. I got most of my family gifts done, which was good. We were going to go with the guys to buy soccer jerseys on our way back to the hotel, but we ended up getting turned around looking for it and went back to the hotel. The walk was HORRIBLE and I finally understood why we never walked anywhere in the middle of the day.

For the afternoon, we went to a company called Ascenx. It was run by expats who also shared their stories of getting out of Vietnam, and then going back to set up a business. I thought it was a great experience, even though the logistics of the company were a little over my head. After the session, the CEO invited us all to coffee, in classic Vietnamese fashion. So we all went down to the coffee shop in the lobby of the building and chatted more. We ended up talking about everything from places to go at night to where to find a good burger in Vietnam. They suggested that we go to dinner at a restaurant called the Black Cat and the guys got really excited about the idea of more American Food. We ended up eating there and it was really good.

Tuesday night is ladies night, so after some mild group logistical issues in getting out, we ended the night on a really fun note. All in all, it was a very good day!

Day Eight: Monday

On Monday we woke up and went to UEF for the culture and language classes. This culture class was about the history of the Vietnamese people, and history has never been a subject I've never been really good at. I found it interesting, because I was spending time in the country and was interested in its past, but the lesson did seem to drag on for a while. After that we had a language class, another one of my horrible subjects. The Vietnamese students help though, so it's not horrible. Im starting to be able to remember sentences, but whenever I get a paper to read I end up even more confused since the letters are all pronounced differently.

For the afternoon, we went to the University of Agriculture and Forestry for lectures on catfish farming. This university was much more of a campus than UEF, but I saw a lot less students around as well. We had three separate presentations from faculty members, but with all the overlap I felt like it all could have been one presentation. The information was interesting, but I didn't know much about fish farming so it was kind of lost on me. After the presentations we went to see some of their research facilities, but there wasn't much research going on so it wasn't as interesting to see. The university was pretty far from the hotel, and a lot of us were dehydrated for some reason, so we stopped for waters on the way back. Some of the guys got cookies and other snacks, so it was a nice bus ride home.

For dinner, Elizabeth, Rayna and I went to Pizza Hut. I was shocked to see that it was a sit down restaurant that even had escargot on the menu! When we got back, some of the guy's decided to go out for food, so we just relaxed for a little. Rayna and I ended up hanging out in Kyle and Matt's room for a while, and Elizabeth and Andrew were hanging out with the kids on the trip from Uruguay. It was a pretty low key night, but a lot of fun.

Day Five, Six & Seven...Weekend :)

Fridayyy.

morning: Intel Vietnam visit.
We visited a plant that Intel just built in Vietnam that hasn't even started producing yet (they will sunday). It wasn't very interesting to see the production lines since they were empty, but it was cool to see the facilities and learn about what went into planning to build the new site, actually contracting local workers, and setting up the factory so that it could begin producing.

we had lunch at the hotel which had an interesting assortment of foods to say the least.

afternoon: Success Alliance and ACDI/VOCA

We visited a nonprofit organization that works with farmers in the Mekong Delta who are CoCoa farmers, by teaching them the best/most efficient ways to grow the plants. It was interesting because I had no idea how much work went into getting fermented cocoa beans...or that they even needed to ferment and dry before they were even chocolate-y.

nighttimmmeee:

fridayy night :) one of the vietnamese students and one of our guides took us shopping, to dinner, and to a "rock show" after. shopping was fun, they were really intense about bargaining and i got a cute shirt for going out. We went to this really cute place for dinner which was fun, and then to the show afterwards. there was a vietnamese band who did covers of american songs, which was cool. later that night we went to a small club frequented by the Vietnamese, so it was all in a all a very cultural night.

Saturdayy.

Saturday we went to teh Mekong Delta, which was one of the longest car rides we've had since we've been here! At the delta we visited a Cocoa farm, which tied back in the presentation we had on friday. It was weird to taste the beans at different stages of production, they definitely do NOT taste like chocolate until the very end, and then its still very bitter and not sweet at all. For lunch we went to this beautiful outdoor restaurant. The food was good and the fruit in the detlta was fresh and wonderful. After eating, there were hammocks set up so everyone laid down and relaxed before finishing up the day at a nearby cocoa farm. After the delta we all went to KFC and napped, the guys went out for a little I think, but I opted for a night full of sleep instead.

sundayy.

On sunday we went to the beach! we took a boat--a hydrofoil--it was about an hour and a half ride. Once we got to the province where the beach was, we stopped for a short break before hiking up this hugeeeeeee hill to see a Jesus statue. I actually wasn't very impressed with the staute up close, but the view from the top was AMAZING. i have tons of pictures. The hike was full of benches donated by different states, so it was great to find ones from philly & other places i have friends from.

The actual beach wasn't too impressive, it a lot dirtier than i expected, the water wasnt clear and we kept finding random things like plastic bags floating in it. Nonetheless it was really fun, we had a pretty exciting game of catch in the water which was fun and refreshing.

On the way back, our hydrofoil got a bamboo root stuck in the engine. we were going upstream so it was already a longer trip, and then we had to stop so they could dive and get it out, so the ride seemed to take forever. When we got back we all went to barbecue garden for dinner. I can't even remember how to turn on the grill at home but grilling our food at dinner was actually really fun! after we ate everyone came back to the hotel and slept, I was exhausted by such a busy weekend out in the heat.

Day Four

Today was such an amazing day! This morning we had a lecture about the Mekong Delta and different issues such as damns or climate change that may be affecting it. I thought this was especially interesting as we're going to see them on Saturday, and I really had no idea what to expect until now.

There was a break between the end of the lecture and the beginning of our culture class, and somehow we ended up taking a ton of pictures with the Vietnamese students. I thought it was exciting because up until now everyone had still been shy around each other, and I was really happy to see them all comfortable enough with us to even tell us which boys from our group they thought were cute!

Afterwards, we had a Vietnamese culture lesson. I wish we had this one earlier in the week! After understanding the historical context of why the Vietnamese culture is the way it is, I found it a lot easier to understand their actions. I think that over the past few days we've misinterpreted some things people have done, such as the random "hellos!" we hear as we walk down the street, which really are supposed to be friendly! I also learned that in Vietnam, it's usual to be asked questions about your age, whether or not you have a boyfriend, or whether or not you have children. Sometimes I wondered why the students were asking such personal questions, but in their culture they are polite questions to ask.

We spent the afternoon with representatives from US consulate, discussing economics and US/Vietnamese relations. I thought the topic was interesting, but a lot of it went over my head too. They talked about the benefits of trade between the US and Vietnam, and how a US company would go about using the consulate to establish relations in Vietnam.

After this talk, we planned to walk a few blocks to the market, but our plans got delayed by the monstrous rains that suddenly rolled in. I knew it was getting close to the wet, monsoon season, but I wasn't expecting to actually have to be in the rain this trip, and my umbrella was left safely in my suitcase back at the hotel. We walked through the rain and were the ONLY ones on the street..and once we got there the shopkeepers found it hilarious that we were completely soaked through to the skin.

I got some souvenirs at the shop, but there's so many options I had no idea what to get for people, thankfully I have another week to figure it out. After the market we walked back to the hotel (without the rain this time) and then we all went to dinner together. The food was really good, and they had cut the veggies into beautiful flowers!

I'm loving Vietnam right now, and can hardly believe the first week is almost over :(

Day Three

Wednesday was such an early morning after such a long Tuesday night! We didn't go to the school in the morning, but had a site visit instead. We went to Vietnamese Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP). I thought it was going to be something very dirty, but it was actually a very clean and beautiful park. It holds many foreign companies and their factories for outsourcing.

I think being in Vietnam has also changed my views on outsourcing. In America we see it as all bad, but we had the opportunity to talk to and visit II-VI, a PA based company, and the working environment seemed very happy, safe, and clean (though not fully up to US standards). They talked about different bonuses the employees could get, and how some of them were used as incentives for them to produce the highest quality work possible.

We went to a buffet for lunch, but NOTHING was labeled in english, and I was not feeling adventurous. There was lots of bread and rice in that meal, but they were grilling really good chicken kabobs, but nowhere near enough to match our groups high demand.

In the afternoon we went to Glass Egg Digital Media, a visual design company which does the graphics for many video games. I had read this case study in for our pre-departure projects, so I was especially excited to see the presentation. Unfortunately there was emergency business, so we didn't have the opportunity to meet with the CEO or CFO, but it was still a very interesting presentation.

Wednesday evening I think almost EVERYONE took very very long naps. Some of the guys woke up and went to hangout with the UEF kids, but none of the girls got up for that. We ended up waking up around 8 and deciding to finally go to dinner around 9:30. Because it was so late, we decided just to go to Hardrock, which we knew would be open. With the exchange rate, a cab ride anywhere we've tried to go is only about a dollar, and the drivers are always shocked when we give them one, since it usually includes a nice sized tip! We were at dinner till 11:30ish, then came back to the hotel, caught up with the guys a little and laughed at the guys who didn't even wake up until midnight. Even after the long nap, I was exhausted and ready for a good nights sleep.

Day Two

Tuesday was interesting because we had our first site visit. Even after a pretty early Monday night, I still had trouble getting accustomed to a normal sleep schedule. Tuesday morning we had a guest lecture at UEF about urban planning. After having spent some time in the city it was interesting to see what problems the Vietnamese perceived.

We had lunch at the school's Cantin again and then went to Phu My Hung for the afternoon. It was a really far car trip, and I had no idea what to except from this developmental company. I was shocked to discover that they were essentially building what I consider a city within the city. In the area known as South Saigon they had cleared wetlands and were building new residential areas to attract people away from the overcrowded cities. I had never really seen a project of this type in the US, so i thought it was especially interesting.

The drive back to the hotel was in rush hour, so it took a very long time. It made me wonder how often I would leave my neighborhood if i moved to South Saigon. For dinner, we all ordered pizza (very American, we know) and then we went out as a group to get to know the city and each other.

Day One

It's Tuesday night in Vietnam, so I've been here for 2 full days, but thanks to all the long flights and timezone differences I feel like I've been away from home for a whole lot longer.

The trip to Vietnam was my first flight overseas so I was no where near prepared to be that bored for such a long time. When we finally got to the hotel on Sunday night, the last thing I wanted to do was sleep, but knew I had to because Monday morning was when all our trips were going to start bright and early.

On Monday we woke up and went to the hotel's buffet breakfast. I had heard that the food was different from last years students, but really had no idea what to expect. There was a lot of rice, which didn't surprise me tooo much. I'm not very adventurous, so i stuck to mainly toast & fruit, but hopefully by the end of the trip I'll have tried more. After breakfast we went to the University of Economics and Finance for an opening reception. The 45 minute bus ride there was the first time we got to see the city in daylight. The traffic patterns are crazy, people ride motorbikes more than do they use cars, and everyone is weaving in and out of each other constantly. Even in the van, I was afraid we were going to hit someone, or be hit. It was also really interesting to look at all the storefronts on the street, the sidewalks seemed to be almost impassable because everyone was sitting in chairs in front of the stores.

Once we got to the University we were greeted with a banner hanging outside the school. Up in our classroom everyone was so excited to see us! We all sat next yo students from vietnam and heard speaches given by professers from both programs, and they gave us all gifts. One of the girls sang "rockstar" by hannah montana/miley cyrus, which was very random but still fun. I think my favorite part of the morning was when we all sang "Heal the World" together. It made me very excited to get to know the students and their culture.

For the rest of the morning we had a language class. Thankfully, the Vietnamese students were there to help me or I would have been so confused. It's a tonal language, so theres a lot more than a new alphabet to learn, and they pronounce some letters totally different, so it's very hard to follow along reading what she says.

We had lunch in the Can Tin, which is their dining hall. It was rice, soup, shrimp, and surprisingly, french fries.

During the afternoon we had a tour of the city and went to the US Consulate. During the tour we saw one of the local markets, and I'm really excited to go back and get souvenirs to take home. At the consulate we learned some about US relations with Vietnam, the history of the countries, and how Vietnamese citizens apply for visas to the US.

In the evening we had our welcoming dinner..