Vietnam: Day 5

Day, the fifth.  The day commenced as usual, with a hot shower and a decent breakfast in the hotel.  At UEF, we had a guest speaker (who happened to have the same name as one of the UEF students, Tuan Nguyen) who talked about the Mekong Delta in general, getting more and more detailed as the hour went on.  He talked a lot about the culture and the agriculture of the Delta, hoping to give us insight before our daytrip tomorrow.  In our language class, we reviewed how to pronounce numbers in Vietnamese, which lead into learning the days of the week and months of the year.

Lunch at UEF

Our company visit today was to ACDI/VOCA (created by the merger between Agricultural Cooperative Development International and Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance), an NGO that assists farmers in Vietnam and other countries around the world in cocoa production through the Success Alliance Vietnam program.  They went through a slideshow that explained the process of planting, growing, gathering, fermenting, drying, and selling cocoa in the Mekong Delta.  They were also nice enough to give each of us a Success Alliance Vietnam hat and bag.  It was another good segway between today and our trip tomorrow.

After leaving ACDI/VOCA, we took a taxi to a karaoke club called V-Box.  We purchased a private box for the 17 of us (all of us from Pitt and two UEF students), which ended up costing about 150,000 Vietnamese dong, or around 7-8 US dollars for two hours of karaoke and some food.  We sang everything from N*Sync to Queen to Mika to LMFAO; it was a great time.  They don’t have clubs like this in the US, probably because Americans don’t karaoke near enough to warrant building and maintaining them.

Walking past the Opera House on the way back to the hotel

Because we have an early start tomorrow morning (we leave the hotel at 7:30, an hour before normal), I decided not to go out to explore the city tonight; rather a few of us (Comer, Nikki, Austin, and I) decided to stay in, blog, and watch Mulan.  Hell yes Disney movies in Vietnam.

Vietnam: Day 4

Four days in Vietnam has already blown my mind, I can’t imagine what’s to come in the next ten days.  This morning, I woke up, showered, and ate breakfast at the hotel, as per the usual.  Following breakfast, we took our bus to UEF and began the day with a Vietnamese culture class, one of four lectures about Vietnam that we will have during our stay here.  After about a half hour break, we had our third Vietnamese language class.  The Vietnamese student that sat between Laura and me on Monday and Tuesday was not there today; however, we still seemed to learn quite a bit.  We briefly went over what we had learned previously, followed by learning how to ask how much something costs and how to say prices (the numbers one to ten and the word for 1000; strung together you can say pretty much any number).  Lunch at the canteen was wonderful, like always.

Today’s company visit wasn’t a company, per say.  We went to the US Department of Commerce, a sort of branch of the US Consulate of Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City.  While there, we learned a lot about the United States exporting goods to Vietnam and the difficulties and benefits of doing so.  We also briefly talked about the differences in government and price points, and how they affect the commercial relations between the US and Vietnam.

Back at the hotel, a bunch of us decided to go swimming before our next set of plans commenced.  The pool (which was on the roof of the hotel, by the way) was a nice way to relax after class and visiting the consulate this afternoon.  Laura brought her camera up and took some pictures before deciding to join us in the pool; Eric’s camera was waterproof and thus was in the pool with us.  All in all, it was a fun hour or so.

Motorbike traffic in Ho Chi Minh City

Once dried and changed, we joined the UEF students for a dance class which happened to be on the roof a building as well.  We had a teacher and everything!  We learned a dance (that was pretty easy after you got the hang of it) that was sort of like the tango, mixing Pittsburgh students with UEF students, all one big happy family.  I danced with Phuong, which was indeed an interesting (and all over fun) experience.  Being only 5’1” or so, the foot plus difference in height made dancing both funny and a tad difficult.  I had to take really small steps to avoid stepping on her feet, which was pretty hard, considering I have long legs and am used to taking long strides.

Our circle on the roof before dancing

We cut out of dance about 20 minutes early to go out to dinner with some of the UEF students, who took us to a small outdoor food place where we sat on really small metal stools at a long metal table that was pretty damn low to the ground (by my standards, at least).  We ate spring rolls and chicken with rice, and I had a bottle of water.  The meal was very good (I mean, when hasn’t it been?), despite the fact that I decided to eat a full chilli pepper without having anything else to drink left.

Dinner

The chili peppers Tom, Laura, and I ate

The other table at dinner

To end the night, we took a walk around the area and ended up getting ice cream at a place around the corner.  I got an orange juice-type of dish with ice cream, which was different than what I was expecting but still very tasty.  A great end to an even better day.

Austin after eating his ice cream

Vietnam: Day 3

Today, we did not go to UEF like we had the past two days.  Instead, we had 3 separate company visits, two of which we did in the morning when we are normally at UEF and in our Vietnamese language class.  I woke up around 7 and showered before going down to breakfast, as usual.  After breakfast we headed out to VSIP, or Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park, our first of three company visits.

At VSIP, we were given a presentation in which we learned all about VSIP’s goals and aspirations as a company, as well as took a few pretty cool photos of their two models of their industrial parks (one displaying VSIP I, the other portraying VSIP II).

Model of VSIP I in Binh Duong

Following VSIP, we went right two II-VI Vietnam Corporation, a company that deals in laser optics and thermoelectric cooling.  We split into two groups (one for each of the company’s two focuses) and were given tours.  Although photos were not allowed to be taken in the workplace, we did see a lot of cool and interesting things on both tours, from the making of laser lenses to the construction of thermoelectric cooling components.

Outside of II-VI 

After II-VI, we came back to the hotel for lunch and nap time (or at least that’s what Austin and I used it for) before heading back out to our third and final company visit of the day, one to Vietnam Eximbank, the third largest banking company in all of Vietnam.  The staff at Eximbank was extremely happy to have us and were delighted to answer our questions and show us around the bank.

Currency exchange rates at Eximbank

Free time commenced once we returned to the hotel around 4:00 pm.  After changing into shorts and a t-shirt, I joined Austin, Ben, Stephen, Steven, and Eric and we headed down towards the
Bến Thành Market to walk around, explore, and kill some time before going to dinner at 7.

For dinner, we went to Phở 24.  I ordered phở with chicken and a guava juice, both of which were extremely delicious.  The meal (phở, two orders of spring rolls for the table, and a drink) cost everyone about 100,000 dong, or a little less than 5 US dollars.  I love this country.

Vietnam: Day 2

Today, we had to be on the bus by 8:30 in the morning, 15 minutes after we had to be up yesterday.  Dr. Berman was impressed that we were all up ready to go early yesterday, and let us sleep a little longer today.  After getting up and showering, Austin and I went down to breakfast.  I decided to get eggs this morning; a few of the kids who went on the Vietnam Plus3 trip last year told us that the eggs in the hotel were impeccable (and indeed they were pretty damn good).

At UEF we had a presentation on Vietnam about its economic status, social status, expectations for the future, etc.  The presentation was extremely informative and gave me a better understanding of the economy, society, and urban planning in Ho Chi Minh City.  Following the presentation, we had our second day of Vietnamese language class with the UEF students and our teacher, going over what we learned yesterday and adding some new phrases (how are you, I’m fine, etc).

Motorbikes of the UEF students

Our first company visit was today: Phu My Hung Corporation.  Tom, Maia, and I had Phu My Hung as our company for our pre-departure presentation; thus, we headed the discussion and asked questions following the informational presentation about the company.  We took a bus tour following the Q & A session and realised just how beautiful and amazing the Phu My Hung area is.

Display model of the Phu My Hung area of District 7 in Ho Chi Minh City

Me standing on the balcony at Phu My Hung Cooperation overlooking District 7

Tonight, we had dinner with some of the UEF students—it was really good (and inexpensive, too!).  We went to YogenFruz for frozen yogurt after dinner also.  It was similar to Razzy Fresh, but they blended the fruit in with the frozen yogurt, which was awesome.  See you again tomorrow!

Vietnam: Day 1

Today, I woke up around 6:00 am after getting about 5 hours of sleep.  After taking a quick shower and checking my email, I went down to breakfast at the Victory Hotel.  The breakfast, although interesting (they had noodle and rice dishes that Americans would normally think of as lunch or dinner meals) was very enjoyable and delicious.  I had a bowl of pho and some fresh fruit.

After breakfast, we went to UEF for a welcome celebration where we all introduced ourselves, sang, danced, and conversed with the Vietnamese students.  The University of Pittsburgh presented UEF with a few gifts (a UPitt banner and Pitt t-shirts) and UEF gave each of us shirts.  After the ceremony, we had our first Vietnamese language class, in which we learned some basic sentences and words in Vietnamese (what is your name, my name is, hello, goodbye, see you again, etc).  Following the class, we had lunch at the canteen before heading back to the hotel.

Me introducing myself to the UEF students and faculty

Group shot at the welcome ceremony at UEF

We had about half an hour to freshen up and change before going on a short bus tour of the area and stopping at the US Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City.  At the Consulate, we talked with an American foreign policy worker who has been in the foreign policy business for 20+ years.  We finished off the trip with a group photo in front of the plaque in the Consulate boundaries that commemorated the 5 US citizens killed during the Viet Cong attack.  At 7:00, we headed over to Que Nha for a seven course dinner that was excellent and quite an experience.  All in all, it was a very fun and exciting first day in Vietnam.

Dinner at Que Nha

Purpose

The purpose of this blog is to chronicle my experiences on the 2011 Plus3 Vietnam program through the University of Pittsburgh.  Every day, I will be making a single post documenting what we did along with posting a few photos here and there that are relevant to that day's post.  Let the fun begin!