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.