Plus Three

May 11-16 2009

2009-05-18T08:12:00.000-07:00

I am sorry i have been so behind on my blog. This entry os more of a way to round out my trip to Vietnam and tell what i had done the last week in this amazing trip.

We had class everyday that week expect for thursday, due to a day trip to the stock exchange. Our language has come so far and we even had a test on friday. The lectures in the mornings really helped all of us experience the culture much better, especially with respect to the language.

Company visits this week included:

A local real-estate firm

The United States Department of Commerce

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange

On Wednesday instead of going to a company visit we stayed at the university and hung out their English club and later in the day played soccer against the University team. That was something to see lol.

Our group also made a trip to the War Reminiscent Museum which was probably the most intense museum i have ever been to. Much of what we saw was propaganda against the American efforts in Viet Nam. Though the images were strong, it really gave me the full sense of the war. It was something most would not want to see but need to at the same time.

We spent this last week trying to get the most out of the city regarding both activities in the day and night. I think we achieved this. My trip to Viet Nam has been one of the best experiences in my life. I plan to go back as soon as i can.

May 10 2009

2009-05-11T04:28:00.000-07:00

Waking up with your ears ringing from the night before is something i would not like to have happen again, but it is an experience lol. I was very excited for sunday's activities considering we going to have a cooking class! The day started at the same time 8 AM when a coordinator of the cooking class gave us the run down of the program. We were broken into teams and got to buy the ingrediants. It felt like a reality tv show. The place we went to buy the produce was a local market, something all of us didn't experience yet. I got some great photos of the market :-)

The cooking class was great. It was relaxed and the food was amazing especially the fried spring rolls with banana and shrimp. yum. I am so happy that we were given the recipes so i can make them at home.

Later after the cooking class, we got to the Damsen Water Park. Thsi trip was more than just letting loose at a water park, we got to play with Vietnamese orphans. They were little devils, by that i mean active. It was so much fun and great to connect with kids from broken homes.

Later that night we just chilled in the hotel room.

May 9 2009

2009-05-11T02:07:00.000-07:00

It was an early morning for us. We had to leave and be on the road for the trip of the day by 7 AM! Yeah so that fun but it was definitely worth it considering we were heading out the city to visit the Mekong Delta. I was anxious to see this considering i have only had a chance to see the life of the Vietnamese in a city setting.

The delta was a great place and i was surprised at how welcoming all the locals were when they saw us American tourists. As we walked down paths, people on porths would wave and say hello. It was a nice thing to see. I felt so overbearing though considering we were observing their daily routine and their homes. I think that comes up a lot during travel. Our tour guide, who is awesome, took us to several spots for us to experience the culture. We had fresh fruit at one house, then we stopped to see how cocanut choclate was made, and finally attended an informal lunch. The cocanut chocolate makers were very interesting, but when we were there a monsoon hit. I have never seen so much rain in a short period of time in my life. Some of the people's roof blew away. It did not seem to phase them though. The whole operation stopped and i got send great pictures of the rain. Jackpot! The lunch we had was very delicious too.

It was a long day with the delta trip, but later that night Koah and Chi (friends from the University) took all of us to a club. It was quite an experience needless to say, ask me about. My ears were ringing all of Sunday.

May 8 2009

2009-05-10T23:04:00.000-07:00

On Friday, we went to class as usual and had business and language class. We are really starting to pick on the language, it is very surprising! lol

I was very excited for the afternoon site visit to ASCENX technologies because it was geared towards the engineering major. Luckily, the visit lived up to my standards. It was been my favorite to date by far. The CEO, Tung Bach, is a VietQ and had the most amazing story about his life. The VietQ are overseas Vietnamese typically from the south who migrated out of the country when the South Vietnamese government fell to communisim. His story of escaping the country and all the history he lived through was so remarkable to hear about. If you want to hear the story just ask, I do not want to blog about it. The hisotry he shared tied in very well to the visit from Duane Morris we had the previous day, since he spoke of the VietQ. It was great to hear a first hand experience of something so important in this culture.

After Tung Bach shared his sotry we were able to mingle with his workers and get to know him better. I talked to several workers, found out educational background, and what their job entails. ASCENX was such a generous company, they treated all of us to coffee and gave us free tshirts. This was definitely one of the highlights of my trip.

The visit lasted longer than expected from Etown , we headed to a family style dinner at a Vietnamese home on the Saigon river. The food was absolutely amazing! We also got the chance to cook too. We made a type of fresh roll using rice paper, beef, and some greens and we ate them with a peanut sauce. So Good! We were served traditional Vietnamese food, it was awesome.

Later that night, all of us didn't feel like venturing out of the hotel so we stayed in. It turned out to be a great time.

....During Tep Offensive

May 7 2009

2009-05-08T08:25:00.000-07:00

There was a little change in routine on Thursday. Instead of heading to the university for class we went to a local high school for the gifted and got a tour. It was a great experience because their school system is structured so different to ours and it was great to learn about. Also we got to meet several students majoring in english. Their english was so good! I loved talking to them. They were very interested in what I was studying and just wanted to know everything about me. One asked me about American Pie, the movie, and wanted to know if it was like that in real life.......not so much lol. The students loved us and i really enjoyed spending time with them.

We had a lot of time before our the site visit, so Nick and I took mopeds to the Market Place to get some souvenirs and some authentic food. I found so much such as: a Lacoste polo, fake Ray Bans, chop sticks, and good food. That was all for less than 20 dollars.

The visit was with a lawyer from Duane Morris. He was very informative and really allowed us to learn so much about the present business in Viet Nam. He taught us a lot about the overseas Vietnamese. Which was very helpful to know about in the next site visit.

That night our one Vietanmese friend Koah took all of us shopping at a market. Then we all went to get coffee and later we went on an adventure to the majestic. Ask me about it, may not be the best to blog about lol. But we ended up doing work on the sidewalk with some locals. I love this place!

May 6 2009

2009-05-08T07:18:00.000-07:00

So this Wednesday morning at UEF we found that the elevator was fixed. That was nice considering we have class on the seventh floor. This day of class we had our first culture class. The lecture was so informative. The professor was very intense and once the class was over the white board was probably the most confusing thing to look at lol. Once again we had language class. I loved it as usual. end of story.

The site visit that afternoon was very exciting. It was to the newly developed South Saigon or District 7. We were going to a company regarding the new developments named Phu My Hung. When we walked into the conference room, we all saw the scale model of the new structures to be developed. The presentation for the company included several pictures regarding the evolution of the area. This was great to see as an engineer, specifically civil. The land was at one point all swampland and now condos and building are being built on it. Learning the complex engineering behind all of the new Ho Chi Minh City structures was a great oppurtunity. In addition to engineering benefits, there was a definite link to business too. I am starting to see the very strong bond between business and engineering.

Though the new district of Saigon is very exciting and modern, I did not agree with it completely. I understand that its purpose is to attract new businesses in Saigon but it is also to help the over population problem in the city. Though it meets those requirements, i feel engineering developement is neglecting the infrastructure problems in the city. Also I feel the new developments do not have the cultured look the city does right now.

Later at night, some of us found a small road side cafe to get dinner. I had a small pizza and tiramasu. It was delicious and cheap :-) We sat on stools on the sidewalk. It was very relaxing and enjoyable. Later that night we went to the Rex Hotel to unwind a little and relax.

May 5 2009 cont.

2009-05-06T23:24:00.000-07:00

I know that I am a little behind on this blog, but the following are the events that occured on May 5 2009 during the day.

After I had posted my last blog, the group left for UEF for morning classes. We continuied our study of the Vietnamese language and i love it! It is a very diffcult language to speak yet it is an exciting class to take part in. Our techer is wonderful. I also had my first business class ever in my whole education career and to say that i took it in Viet Nam is amazing. The Vietnamese business professor was awesome too but a little hard top understand. We learned about the tax reform in Viet Nam. Also I am starting to grasp some phrases in the language such as saying my name and saying "see you agian".

On a less academic note, Our group of students overloaded the UEF elevator and it plunged down to the basement. It was a little scary yet funny. We were stuck for a few minutes. Ten Ameircans and a small Vietnamese man does not equal eight Vietnamese people. Lesson Learned.

Our business visit that day was more for the business students. It was Glass Egg Media a video game artwork outsourcing firm. They gave us a great tour. It was amazing the computer artwork thier workers can do! They are highly ranked in Asia as one of the top five in their fields. Very impressive. The presentation had some reagrd to engineering when it came to prgramming. The visit was great and one of my favorites thus far.

Later that night, I fell asleep while everyone went out to club Lush. I was such a Deborah. Everyone had a great time.

May 5 2009

2009-05-04T17:20:00.000-07:00

Okay so I have not updated this in awhile.

I had a great surprise when coming from Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh. A bunch of us were updated to business class! It was absolutely wonderful. Business class is basically a flying bed and had personal tvs with radio, movies, tv, and games for each passenger. I was in heaven. Also the food was gourment. Needless to say it was the greatest flight i have ever had. :-)

Immediately when we get to Ho Chi Minh, we went through customs and got our luggage. We then headed out in the herendous traffic to get to my new home for two weeks, The Victory Hotel. It is an avergae hotel but it owned byt he defense department of Vietnam and is in walkign distance to a lot of cool attractions. It was around midnight when we got to the hotel and checked in. Instead of going to bed, a bunch of us wanted to explore the city. Ho Chi Minh City is gorgeous. It is so different and youthful. People just sit around and relax anywhere. That night we got to see attractions like the Cathedral, The Opera House, and The Rex Hotel.

After a night of sight seeing and getting lost, we woke up bright and early and headed out for our first day of class. We were welcomed very warmly at the University of Economics and Finance. The students sang to us Micheal Jaskson and we got to interact with them. It was amazing. Then we wnt to our first class, Vietnamese language. The language is so difficult, nothing like english or any language i have been exposed to. Our teacher though is so cute and fun. That class was the most fun i have ever had in a language class. In the classroom, we were paired with a Vietnamese student to help us. It was great to talk one on one with a student and i got to compare music with him. He also asked if i have ever drank beer lol. After class, we had a great lunch in the cafeteria, Vietnamese food is great!

We left the school and came back to the hotel for a half hour, so Sean, Nick, and I when to look at some store around the hotel. We found a store with electonics and I got a pair of new iPod headphones for 4 dollars! I love exchange rates. We headed back and went on a site visit to the Independence Palace and the US Consulate. Both we very interesting and to get into the consulate, you had to basically give up everything you owned, the security is so strict. I also had my first experience with pedlers

After those two day trips, We came back and I had some time to recover. When we were at the consulate, he mentioned something about jet lag and it got to me. After an hour break so or, we went to dinner in a real chill restaurant that was in a side street. I was really good especially the honey pork.

Coming back from dinner, we all were tired yet some of us chose to go out to the Rex with a Vietnamese kid we met in class. Last night was awesome, we to hangout with a local, drink, relax. It has been a great trip so far.

Hong Kong

2009-05-03T03:45:00.000-07:00

So i just got off my flight from Chicago to Hong Kong. It took around fifteen hours and the food was better than i expected. Every worker at the Hong Kong airport is wearing a mask. Hope I don't get the Swine Flu!

First One

2009-05-01T07:19:00.000-07:00

This is my first post. We have not left yet and i still did not pack. I have until 3 o'clock tomorrow morning.