Day 12- May 24, 2013

Today was our last day in Vietnam!  We began the day with a soccer and basketball game against the UEF club teams.  Soccer we tied them 4-4.  I'm pretty sure they were going easy on us though.  For our first time playing soccer together, we weren't half bad!  It was so funny watching the game because a lot of us don't play soccer.  After we played basketball, but I don't even know who won or what the score was.  By that point everyone was hot and tired from the soccer match.  This afternoon a few of us went out to lunch with some Vietnamese students. We went to some Vietnamese restaurant, which was alright.  I got a beef skewer and it didn't even taste like beef so I didn't eat it.  While walking to and from the restaurant we stopped to see the little puppies in cages on the side of the road.  They're the cutest little guys I have ever seen.  There are so many squished in a little cage in this heat though.  I feel so bad for them, they must be miserable.  I wanted to take one home so badly, seeing as they were only $100, but I don't think my parents would go for that.  Tonight we went to dinner on a boat on the river.  On the boat there was live music, a fire dancer, and flamenco dancers.  It was great being able to spend the last night all together with the staff that helped us out and made this trip all possible.  As much as I want to go home, this trip was a great experience.  I learned so much, met so many new people, and traveled parts of a new country I have never been to.  It was an eye opening experience, seeing as I have never been to a place even remotely close to Vietnam.  This was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I'm so happy I did this.

Day 11- May 23, 2013

Today we had a Vietnamese language test.  We had to go to the front of the class with a partner and say some numbers, ways to say hello depending on age, ask each other 3 questions, and recite a short paragraph about yourself and your experience in Vietnam.  In my opinion, that's a lot considering we've been learning the language for two weeks.  After class a few of us went to the Ben Thanh Market.  I had never been there before and I thought it was a lot better than the market we went to in Chinatown.  It was less crowded, but the vendors tried harder to sell you things.  I don't like the whole market atmosphere because I'd rather shop in peace on my own and I don't particularly enjoy having people touch and grab me when I'm looking around.  At night, we went to a nice dinner at the Rex Hotel with Dr. Berman.  We had a table on the roof with a nice view of the city.  This place was expensive and made me feel like we were all high rollers.  It was an awesome way to spend one of our last nights.  After dinner we met up the Dennis, the presentor from II VI, and his son and he took us bar hopping.  This was quite an experience seeing as I've never been bar hopping before.  We probably ended going to between 5-10 bars total.  It was cool seeing all these bars for like a half hour at a time and then going to the next one.  I wish we could have done this earlier in the trip because then we would have known about more places to go out to!  The coolest bar we went to was probably the Emergency Room.  It was a themed bar where all the waitresses and bartenders were dressed up as nurses.  I'd never seen a themed bar like this before.  After I got back to the hotel, I was in the hallway and I saw a bat fly up the stairs.  It was so freaky, how does a bat even get in a hotel?  That was pretty much my cue that it was time to go to sleep at that point.

Day 10- May 22, 2013

Last night we went to dinner at and Italian restaurant and out to Lush.  Dinner was by far the best meal here to date.  I got spinach raviolis and they were the most delicious raviolis I have ever eaten.  They put my parent's raviolis to shame.  Later on we all went back to the club, Lush.  It was ladies night so all the girls got in for free and got free drinks until 12:00.  The bartender ended up cutting some of us off because they saw us getting free drinks for guys.  Today we went on two company visits.  The first one was Newport, which is a trade port that's run by the Navy.  Since I've taken two semesters of economics, it was interesting seeing the floor where exports and imports are shipped and delivered.  For lunch we went to some restaurant near the companies we visited.  It was pretty good and nice to get to a different lunch restaurant since we go to the same place every day for lunch.  After we visited a real estate company whose current project is building apartments.  These apartments were beautiful!  The whole set up was like a resort.  There was 5 tall buildings arranged in a circle with a big pool area in the center.  Tonight a few of us went to an America restaurant called Zest.  It was quite the experience.  We were the only people in the restaurant and the staff was all over us.  They took our pictures to upload to Facebook and there was this one staff member that was up on the second floor sniping candid pictures of us while we were eating.  I got the vibe that they don't really get too many customers in that place.  My meal was delicious though.  I'd definitely go back there.

Day 9- May 21, 2013

This morning we had culture and language class.  In culture class we learned that Northern Vietnam eats dogs.  All I could think about is my dog, Chester, and how I could never even think about eating him.  Some of the foods here I would never even think to eat, like ostrich, but dog just takes it to a whole new level.  I think of dogs as pets, not food.  After lunch we visited Navibank.  The whole presentation was in Vietnamese and one of the UEF students translated it into English for us as.  It was different listening to a whole presentation in only Vietnamese, but it was interesting seeing how fast a student could translate it.  That would be very hard to do.  I learned that a lot of Vietnamese do not trust banks so they keep their money at home and refuse to use savings accounts.  I can't imagine keeping all my money in a safe at home where it's so easily accessible.  I also noticed that there were only women working at Navibank.  There were three women that were a part of the presentation and then there were only women workings as tellers when we first walked in.  Most of the companies we have visited have been made up of mostly men, so it was different seeing only women.  After the bank some of us went to the post office to get some souvenir shopping done.  There was a lot of cool jewelry and handcrafted things for your house.  I bought a lot of stuff for my friends and family there.  Tonight we're going to go out to dinner and figure the rest from there.  We don't have to meet tomorrow until 9:30, so I get to sleep in!!!!

Day 8- May 20, 2013

Today we went to the Presidential Palace, which is equivalent to the White House in America.  We didn't have an organized tour so we all just wandered around the building.  There were a lot of big, fancy rooms that we could look in.  The view from the top was pretty and looked down a street in Ho Chi Minh City.  Then we went to the post office which did not seem equivalent to an American post office.  The only parts I saw were souvenir shops, so I bought a few things.  Later on today we went to a market in Chinatown.  I have never felt more claustrophobic in my life.  There were vendors cramped together with not even a meter wide aisle in between.  In the aisle there were people walking both directions while other vendors were trying to make their way through with boxes and trying to stock up each of their stands.  We had to bargain in Vietnamese and they spoke very little to no English, so the Vietnamese students had to help.  Safe to say I didn't buy anything here.  This experience was unlike any other I have ever had.  After we got back to the hotel, I walked around shops a few blocks from the hotel and shopped around there.  I went mostly into clothing stores which were more Americanized and a shop with some cool Vietnamese souvenirs.  Tonight we went to a restaurant called Ti Ti, which was a delicious French restaurant.  The menu didn't seem very French at all, but I was very satisfied with my pasta with beef.  The taxi ride to the restaurant was brutal.  We squished 9 people in the cab for a 70,000 dong cab ride, whereas the ride back was only 40,000 dong.  The first driver took us all around thinking we wouldn't notice while I was sitting across three people squeezed in the back.  I'm exhausted now so I'm not sure what I'm going to do the rest of the night.

Day 7- May 19, 2013

Today we had a day trip to Vung Tao.  We took a hydrofoil down the river to the beach area, which was about an hour and a half.  Going down the river was pretty cool because we got to see a lot of scenery that we haven't seen before.  Once we got to Vung Tao we went hiking.  Our first short hike was to a Jesus statue.  This hike wasn't bad--it was only like 10 minutes, not even.  Then we went to a Buddhist Pagoda.  It was interesting seeing how different religions are practiced because my family isn't religious at all.  There was a lady there selling small birds that you could release into the wild.  It symbolized something in their religion, but I didn't hear exactly what it was.  Our second hike was harder.  It was 1000 steps in the scorching hot weather to another Jesus statue.  I don't think I've ever sweat this much in my life.  I was sweating so much that I didn't even feel it anymore.  The views from this hike were gorgeous though.  All the sweating was definitely worth it once we jumped in the ocean at the beach.  The beaches were gorgeous and the water was so warm and relaxing.  I bought a raft and just chilled in the water all day.  I also got freshly squeezed watermelon juice which was probably the best juice I have ever tasted.  Tonight we went to a restaurant but I forget the name of it.  I got a $3.00 steak and the best chicken wings.  I'd say this was one of the best dinners I've had here so far.

Day 6- May 18, 2013

Last night we went to dinner at the Black Cat.  The food there was very good!  I got a bacon egg and cheese which was delicious.  After we all went to Lush because we had gotten a table reserved for us there.  This night club was sick!!  I literally felt like we were on a reality TV show.  There was a bar and dance floor on the first floor and then the second floor was where all the VIPs were at the tables which overlooked the first floor.  Bottles were extremely expensive though, so getting all the money together turned into such a hassle.  Once it was all figured out though we all had a blast dancing and partying together.  This morning Danielle and I overslept because our alarms didn't go off, so we had to rush to get ready to go to the Cu Chi Tunnels.  The tunnels were so cool!  They're apart of 250 km of underground tunnels that were used during the war.  We got to go in some of them too, but they're only about one meter high so it was very hard to breath and get through.  In the one I went in there was a bat that flew right by us.  After I went through the first one I didn't go in any other ones because I had difficulty breathing in them.  I felt so sick during this trip because I was dehydrated and overheated.  I ended up throwing up three times.  This was not how I planned on spending my day.  Tonight I'm just going to lay low and rest up because we have a long day tomorrow hiking and going to the beach and the last thing I want is a repeat of what happened today.

Day 5- May 17, 2013

Last night we went to karaoke.  It was a cool experience since I've never been to something like that ever in America.  I was so exhausted though and came back and passed out with my computer on my lap by 9:45.  Today we had language and culture class.  It was interesting learning about the Vietnamese culture.  I thought the view of numbers was fascinating.  Odd numbers are viewed as good, whereas even numbers are viewed as bad.  For example, if you were to give a woman 4 roses they would take that offensively because they would think you want them to die earlier.  After lunch we were split up into 4 teams and played a bunch of games with the Vietnamese students.  Our team was named Dai Hoc Awesome (University of Awesome).  The first activity we did was that each team had a few minutes to come up with a group dance and then we had to perform them in front of everyone.  All of the dances were hilarious.  Another game we played was that we had to blow up balloons and tie them to one of our teammate's head and see which group finished 20 balloons first.  Our group won that game!  There was this one game that we played where each person on your team was tied to another person and there was this mat that had different pictures on it.  Someone would roll a big dice and whichever picture it landed on, each team had to go put their color circle on it first and whoever got there first won that round.  This game became very violent very quickly!  In the end my team ended up tying for 2nd, not too bad.  Tonight we have a table reserved at the night club, Lush, so everyone will be going to that.

Day 4- May 16, 2013

Last night we went to a restaurant and then to the club, Fuse.  The food was very good! I got chicken and broccoli with white rice.  The restaurant was really cool looking.  When you walked in there was water surrounding the walkway and there was no railings or anything so you could easily just  fall in.  A few more drinks and I would have been in that water!  We all went to Fuse after which was a lot of fun.  They played American popular music and it was just a huge dance party.  The crowd of people that were there was for the most part the same as what I expected--lots of creepy men and slutty women.  It was a great time though!  This morning we had language class and a guest lecture about the Mekong Delta.  The whole morning I was feeling sick so it was hard for me to sit through.  Lunch at the restaurant made me feel better though since I got more food in my stomach.  After lunch we went to visit Glass Egg.  The bus ride there was probably one of the worst yet.  I was literally sitting in my own sweat.  Luckily it wasn't too far.  Glass Egg was really cool.  It's a video gaming company and everyone working there is just in a huge room designing their part of each game at their own little cubicle.  These people are extremely talented.  They were drawing pictures on their computer which is extremely hard to do.  It's so weird to think that it'll all come together as a video game in the end.  Tonight we're going out to dinner and karaoke with the Vietnamese students.  I'm not much of a singer so who knows how this will turn out.

Day 3-May 15, 2013

Today we visited VSIP, which was my company.  Before coming to Vietnam I was still sort of confused as to how an industrial park actually operated, but after this company visit it's all more clear to me.  I see how there are different companies located within the boundaries of the industrial park and they choose to locate themselves there because of certain benefits they will receive.  We also heard from II IV.  Dave, the presenter, was very knowledgable about his company.  I find it amazing how he came here from America and doesn't speak Vietnamese and he's still able to work here.  His children also go to school in Vietnam as well.  He gave us a tour of two II IV buildings.  It was really cool being able to see first-hand what goes on behind doors in a manufacturing company.  There are so many steps to make the smallest items.  I never realized how much time was put into making the most intricate parts of larger products.  They have a huge assembly line set up to accomplish these tasks.  Also, the labor laws caught my attention.  Workers are able to miss work up to five days in a row every month before they're fired.  In America you'd be fired in a second!  After the company tours, we had lunch at a Chinese restaurant.  Asian Chinese food is very different than Americanized Chinese food.  The beef (or whatever meat that was) and broccoli with white rice was pretty much the only similarity I noticed.  While we were in the restaurant it began to downpour.  I thought rain in Oakland was bad, but that's nothing compared to this rain.  The bus driver had to pull under an overhang and workers escorted us with umbrellas so we wouldn't get wet.  It was crazy!  Then we went to EIU and heard a brief lecture on their school and played a game with the students.  My group had to describe to the Vietnamese students what Thanksgiving was and how we celebrate it and then they had to draw it.  It was a really interesting and fun game.  These students were so nice and welcoming.  On the long bus ride home we broke out the bus games.  It was like high school all over again!

Day 2 May 14, 2013

Today we began to get into our daily routine of waking up and getting out the door to class early.  We had a guest lecturer on urban development and then language class.  I'm beginning to catch on to this whole Vietnamese language, but I still find it very difficult.  Tin also gave us a tour UEF.  The school is so small compared to Pitt!  Seeing the school setting in another country was very cool though.  From UEF we went and had lunch and then went to Phu My Hung.  Phu My Hung was incredible.  The immensity of the development that occurred in the past few decades was mind boggling and the view of the city from the twelfth floor was ever more amazing.  After a full day of class and a company visit, the pool was just what I needed.  Who would have ever guessed that I would be chillin on the rooftop of the Victory Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam drinking a beer chatting with my peers and college professors.  I wouldn't mind spending days on that rooftop!  For dinner tonight, the Vietnamese students brought us to a barbecue restaurant.  It was so cool! We would cook our food on our own right at the table!  I cannot believe I ate goat; I will never get over that.  When the waiter brought out a plate of LIVING shrimp I almost lost it.  I can't even eat seafood without getting nauseous, let alone kill it and watch it cook before eating it.  This was definitely a first time experience for me that I enjoyed a lot.  I finally got to ride a motor bike too!!!!!  It was definitely not as scary as I anticipated it to be.  It made me want to drive one on my own, except I would have to do that at night when there was not as many cars and bikes on the road.  Who knows what I'd hit!  Getting off the bike I got an infamous Saigon Kiss...OF COURSE!  I got it from the bike next to me though and it wasn't that bad so it was more of a Saigon Peck.  Tomorrow's a busy day so I'm just going to take it easy for the rest of the night so I'm not this tired again tomorrow.

Day 1- May 13, 2013

Today was our first full day in Vietnam.  Sleeping last night was very rough because of the time difference.  I slept a total of 4 hours.  This morning when we woke up we went to breakfast at the hotel.  Noodles and rice for breakfast is not my ideal breakfast, but it's something I'll have to get used to.  After breakfast we went to UEF and met all the Vietnamese students that will be with us for the two week span that we're here.  They were VERY nice and welcoming, not something you'll see every day in America.  The welcome ceremony that they put on for us was very cool.  There were two dances; one accompanied by a singer as well.  These performers were very talented!  After the traditional dance a few Pitt students, one of which was me, were brought up to learn a few moves from the dance in front of the class.  They're not as easy as they look!  After the ceremony we went to our first language class.  At the end of one day of class I have realized that Vietnamese is probably one of the most difficult things I have tried to learn.  The mix of all the different accents and tones makes it very challenging.  Two of my Vietnamese peers had asked if I had spoken it before though because apparently I had very good pronunciation.  Maybe I should stay here!  We had a family style lunch at Tham Luong Quan.  There was SO much rice to eat.  I could get pretty used to that!  Also, the bananas here are phenomenal.  Everybody's Supermarket, the grocery store at home, has some serious competition!  Later on, the group took a trip to the US Consulate.  It was really cool being at a landmark where so much has happened.  I've never been much of a history person, so I found it very interesting hearing about all that happened there the night of January 30-31 1968.  This visit was definitely an eye opening experience.  Tonight we went to dinner at the Wrap and Roll Restaurant.  There was so much good food.  The jet lag from this weekend is really beginning to kick in, so hopefully I'm able to catch up on sleep soon!