Today began with breakfast at the hotel as usual. I had some
delicious watermelon and banana cake. We went to UEF to have our culture and
language class. In culture class, we learned the significance and balance of symbols
and the Yin and Yang to Vietnamese and other Oriental cultures. Yin means
female and Yang means male, and all things in the world are supposed to operate
around the rules of these interacting and balancing opposites. Language class
involved learning more conversations in Vietnamese, such as asking how our
friends are feeling, what they are doing, and what they thought about certain
events. We also learned a list of adjectives and reviewed our previous lessons.
It is so exciting to be able to talk to Vietnamese people I come across during
the day. Lunch was awesome at the school! They had pepper and tomato omelets
and watermelon! The omelets were better than omelets in the US, and I was so
happy to get some decent protein in 3 days and feel full!
After lunch, we had a company visit at ASCENX Technology.
The company was really interesting. The story of the CEO who talked to us was
even cooler! ASCENX designs engineering equipment that companies need replaced
but cannot be produced by larger manufacturing companies. It operates in San Francisco
and Ho Chi Minh City. The CEO established the company himself even though he
was a refugee from Vietnam when he was 9 years old. He told us how his uncle
helped him escape on a boat to America, which makes him one of the “boat
people.” His company is slowly and organically growing and expanding. His
company proves to be the perfect example of how perseverance and determination pays
off in the end, and his business plans and goals for the next year are the
perfect business models for any young professional, especially us students in
college. Finally, we went down to the Highlands Coffee shop at the company and
enjoyed some awesome coffee drinks with the CEO. I had a caramel coffee float
that tasted so good.
The UEF students picked us up for dinner and we went to
DOMINOS PIZZA!!! It was awesome pizza, and we all had been looking forward to
eating it for days! The funny part was that because we had not been eating a
lot of food in the past few days, our stomachs were smaller than we expected
and everyone got so full from the pizza very quickly. We thank our UEF friends
so much for taking us for pizza! Cam on! We went to see the bridge at Crescent
Mall in South Saigon afterwards. The bridge is illuminated by neon lights at
night, which are solar powered. It is the hot spot for Vietnamese student
couples to hang out at night. When we got back to the hotel we all hung out in
our room for a group blogging session, which is still occurring as I write
this. My abs hurt from laughing with the group so much! Well that’s all for
now! Xin Chao (Goodbye)!
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