Day 7: Do you want some rice to go with your rice?

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Today we started off our day by heading to the beach at Vung Tau. We had to take a an hour and a half long hydrofoil  river boat ride down the Siagon River to get to Vung Tao. Along the river, we saw the dense jungle of Vietnam, as well as some fishermen in boats along the shore. Vung Tao is a harbor-town with many tourist attractions. It felt so nice once we got to the beach: the water was warm, the sun was shining, we could relax, the sand was warm, and smiles were beaming on our faces. There were organized games planned for us on the beach, but it was really funny to see the locals stand around and watch us play them. It is common here for the locals to treat us like celebrities, wanting to watch us and take pictures with us. There was even a news reported taking pictures of us look like idiots as we played the games. We then got to swim in the ocean, which was so warm and fun! Later in the morning a group of us played soccer on the beach to prepare for our soccer match at the end of the week. I am working on a trick where I can pick up a moving soccer ball with my foot and balance it on my foot.

We went to a seafood restaurant on the beach for lunch, and they served us lots of traditional and exotic seafood courses. I ate my small bowl of rice and green beans, but a few kids ate squid, fish, and other Vietnamese foods. Sometimes we have seconds on the rice when we feel like living on the edge. My stomach has definitely shrunk since being here because I do not usually get really hungry and can now eat half the food I ate home and not feel hungry.

                                                                Alex and a purple squid!

After lunch, we climbed a giant hill to see a huge Jesus statue. There was a group of us that took that steps two at a time the whole way but everyone was drenched with sweat by the time we got to the top. Its over 90 degrees every day with a real feel around or above 100 degrees! There were cool gardens at the top, but we were not allowed to go inside Jesus and climb to the top because we were told we were dressed unholy (no pants and no sleeves). Some Vietnamese started taking pictures with us, too. I wore my rice hat the whole time too because it’s awesome and I love it!

                                        View of Vung Tao from the top of hill by the Jesus statue.

We then took the long boat ride back to HCMC, and we all slept most of the ride home. We hung out for a few hours when we got back before going to the Black Cat as a group for dinner. The Black Cat is known for their huge burgers and was ranked by CNN as one of the top ten best eating experiences in the world. It definitely lived up to that award! I got a plain burger and it even tasted like America! We all were stuffed after eating only our burgers, but the feeling was so good. Next, our group went to GO2 for the roof bar and had a fun time hanging out before heading back to the hotel.

                                                    Happy Mother’s Day Mom! I love you!

Day 6: Defining Tourism

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Today was our first day off! Woo hoo! Our day started with a tour of the Reunification Hall, which was the palace of the president of Vietnam started in the 60’s. A bomb had damaged the original palace during the scuffles of the Vietnam War between the north and south of Vietnam.  A new palace, The Reunification Palace, was ordered to be built in its place, and the palace served as the home and war workplace for the president during the Vietnam War. It was super hot during the tour, but it was still really cool. The basement was designed a bomb shelter area, and it housed a lot of the war plan meeting rooms. Multiple presidents lived in the palace; the shortest was for 43 hours. Next, we went to the Notre Dame Cathedral and the biggest post office in HCMC. Inside the post office, there was a giant gift shop that gave us our first taste of the arts and crafts of Vietnam. We did not buy a lot because we planned to go the market later.

                                                                   The beautiful souvenirs!

Next, we went to a Buddhist Pagoda. The architecture and decoration was so unique. When we went inside we had to take off out shoes and we got to see the place where the monks pray. There was a huge statue of Buddha and lots of different flower, food and drink offerings on the alters. Finally, We came back to the hotel for lunch and an afternoon swim in the rainstorm on the roof of the building, which was sweet.

Alex and I outside the pagoda

 Later in the afternoon, we went to the Ben Tan Market with our friends from UEF. We had learned from our language class how to barter in Vietnamese, so I was very excited to put my skills to the test. The UEF students said we came out pretty successful with our bartering by the end of the shopping trip. You can find almost anything at the Ben Tan Market, including: food, flowers, clothes, jewelry, suitcases, dining utensils and other souvenirs. Some Vietnamese phrases we used were: Cai Nay Bo Nhieu (Pronounced Guy Ni Bo New) = How much does it cost, and Mac Qua = too expensive. When we would barter, we would start by cutting the asking price in half, which was what our language class teacher taught us to do. I got some really pretty and CHEAP souvenirs!

Eric, Elliot, and I in our rice farming hats!

In the evening, the UEF students took us to a karaoke bar, where we had a private karaoke room. I did not do sing karaoke though because I cannot sing and that would have been embarrassing. We had a blast though! Later that night, our group went to a club called Lush. Lush is owned by Glass Egg, a company we will visit on Tuesday. We had a lot of fun hanging out as a group!

Day 5: Mac Qua

Friday, May 11, 2012

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)!

Day 4: Fun and Games!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Today we started off the day with a presentation on Vietnamese culture and history at UEF. We started off by learning about how the local people of Vietnam were formed from regional migrations of people from Western Asia. The Chinese also contributed in numerous ways to the culture of Vietnam in ways such as Confucianism and farming techniques. An interesting difference between Vietnamese history and American history is that Vietnamese history goes back to the BC era with nomads, sects, and kingdoms. In language class, we learned the Vietnamese alphabet, which consists of 29 letters. Ten of these letters are vowels, and each vowel has 6 tongues (tones or pronunciations), which denote different meanings for their use in the same word. We also learned how to carry on a simple conversation in Vietnamese while using proper pronouns. I really enjoy Vietnamese class; it is fun to learn and speak in such a different and difficult language. Also, we get some good laughs out of language class when we learn how to pronounce new words and phrases. Our teacher is awesome and really patient, which makes learning Vietnamese much easier. For lunch, we ate rice and beef stew at the school.

After lunch, our UEF student friends had an afternoon of cultural exchange and games planned to do with us. We started off the activities by breaking into 6 groups, so each group had about 2 Pitt students and 5 UEF students. The first activity involved translating Vietnamese phrases about Vietnamese customs and cultures and comparing them to American customs.  Learning these customs is For example, it is appropriate for Vietnamese of the same gender to touch or hug in public, but it is not appropriate for people of the same gender to do so. Next, we had a dancing competition where a Vietnamese student would dance for 30 seconds and we would have to practice and repeat the dance they did. My team made it to the final round but lost to the other team. Next we played charades, and then we had a competition where one person from each team had to hold another person from their same team and rotate them as any many times around their body as they can without dropping them. It was pretty funny. Another game we played involved trying to catch a piglet that was in a pen. The piglet was adorable but I think this game is illegal in the US. We also played a few other games before ending the afternoon with a small ceremony. My team, which was represented by Nino and me, actually won first place for the day! Also, my Vietnamese friend, Lizzie, was on my team! All the teams then won a box of treats, which consisted of chum-chum fruit, dragon fruit, orange cookies, sprite, and some cupcakes. Now we have some awesome snacks in the hotel! The fruit was so delicious! We had a small dance party with the Vietnamese friends and also exchanged gifts. We gave them Pitt shirts and Pitt and Steelers key chains while we got some awesome Vietnamese decorated pots, magnets and magazines.

In the evening, the UEF students came and took us to get Pho (pronounced Fa) for dinner. It is a famous soup in Vietnam, which consists of beef, noodles, and chives. The noodles were good, and reminded me of Ramen noodles. Later at night, a group of us went a rooftop restaurant, which had a awesome view of District 1 in the city! It was fun-filled day!

Day 3: Where's the pizza?

Last night we went out with our Vietnamese friends from UEF (University of Economics and Finance). They picked us up around 6:30 pm, and they had brought us smoothies when they picked us up. They were freshly made from mangos, coconuts, or strawberries. Next, they took us on the back of their motorbikes to a Vietnamese pancake restaurant. The motorbikes were awesome! We had to wear helmets and masks because of the fume pollution when driving, but no one cared! At this point in the week, we were starting to long for non-Vietnamese food, but we were still up for something new. The Vietnamese pancakes were made form rice flour and filled with vegetable meat. You then were to wrap and piece of the pancake in a piece of lettuce and dip it in fish oil. I did not use the fish oil, but did not care for this Vietnamese meal at all. So I had some spring rolls instead. There were also some beef and peanut wraps, but the smell of them also made me sick. After dinner, we rode on the motorbikes to an ice cream shop! The ice cream seemed perfect at that point! I had coconut ice cream with strawberry syrup! So good! We ran a few blocks back to the hotel next because a tailor had come to the hotel. He came because some of the guys were getting CHEAPP tailored suits, which cost about $150. We went to the pool on the roof of the hotel for a little then and went to bed early around 11.

                                                             Happy to be at the Ice Cream Shop!

Eric, Tim, Elliot, and I went to the workout room at 6 this morning. It was   already over 80 degrees when we got up there, so we were all drenched in sweat after running a mile since the windows were open in the gym, making it over 80 degrees inside the room. We then jumped in the pool to cool off before heading back down. Who would have thought you could swim in a pool at 6:50 in the morning without freezing. Breakfast did not go over so well since all I found good to eat at the buffet was a banana, so I had a granola bar a little later.

After breakfast we went to Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) which was the company that my group had researched before our trip. First, we got briefed about the industrial parks in Vietnam, and then we took a tour of the main industrial park by Ho Chi Minh City. VSIP has four industrial parks which serve as a location for new companies in Vietnam, assisting the companies to get permits, workers, buildings, and government approval. After, we toured II-IV, which is a Pittsburgh-based company in VSIP that produces optic lenses and other laser equipment used in Lasik surgery and military weapons. The tour was so cool, and our guide explained things so clearly. It was interesting to learn how the American company has to adapt their policies to be more conscious of the culture of its employees.

                                                               Workers in II-VI!

For lunch, we ate at the hotel again, which had a variety of Vietnamese foods. We were starving when we got to lunch, but I did not find much food appetizing, especially after the last few days of straight Vietnamese food. A group of us then headed to the CO-OP (a smaller version of Walmart) behind the hotel to grab some familiar snack foods for lunch.

In the afternoon, we had a presentation on the US Commercial Services in Vietnam. Our speaker, Frank Joseph, discussed how his job involves helping American companies find profitable markets in Vietnam to market and sell their products. He has to consider current issues and future projects when helping the companies. After the presentation, we went back to the hotel and swam for the rest of the afternoon. We were planning on out Vietnamese student friends taking us to a restaurant again tonight at 7, but we were starving by 4:30 pm, especially for American food. We then spent the next hour trying to order pizza from the Domino’s Pizza in Ho Chi Minh, but we only found out that they do not deliver to the District our hotel is in! Such a disappointment! The students took us by taxi and motorbike to a barbeque restaurant which was really good. I also had a mango for dinner which was awesome! We’re all pretty tired right now and just blogging together at the hotel before we go to bed, so goodnight! Maybe the food will be more appetizing to me tomorrow.

                                                          Chillin' like the Vietnamese do it!

Fun Fact: When crossing a street in Vietnam, the trick is to walk slowly and let the cars go around you! The motorbikes and cars do not stop for pedestrians, but they will move around you slightly. We called it playing “forger” across the road. Also, women have to be extra careful when walking in the road because people on motorbikes sometimes drive my and snatch purses. This has not happened to our group though, especially since we hold our bags and wear them over the opposite shoulder.

                                                                      Our student friends!

Day 2: So much fun!

I'll start by describing hat we did last night for our welcome dinner. We went to a restaurant called Wrap and Roll. At this point in the day, we were all pretty tired and hungry from the jetlag, so we all ordered Pepsi for some caffeine. There was so much food at dinner though! In my words, it was enough food to feed an African village for a day. There were spring rolls made with lettuce and rie paper that were filled with rice noodles, pork, shrimp, lettuce, carrots, and/or cucumbers. There were so delicious. We were also taught how to roll our own spring roll wraps that we filled with rice noodles, pork, beef, cucumbers and bananas. They also brought out rice wraps and chicken on a bamboo stick. At this point we were stuffed but little did we know two more courses were to come. Next, they brought out a fondue type pot with vegetables and a variety of seafood. I did not cook any seafood to eat, but other kids in the group got to eat jellyfish, shrimp and squid. For dessert they brought out some watermelon and a giant citrus fruit. Finally, we all hung out when we got back to the hotel and had a great time!

We started the day today with a presentation at UEF on the urban development of Ho Chi Minh City. It was interesting to see the problems Ho Chi Minh City is facing as its population has outgrown the city limits, as well as to understand the solutions that are being executed to solve everyday problems aound the city. Some of these problems include: sidewalk space being used by vendors, flooding, traffic, few medical facilities, and poor road designs. Ho Chi Minh City councils are now working on expanding sidewalks, implementing new drainage systems, damming the Mekong River, building more roads around the city and building metro and monorail systems.
Our language class today was awesome! We learned how to seriously barter when we got to the market. We leared how to say the numbers 1 through 1,000,000! The numbers 1-10 are mot, hai, ba, bon, nam, sau, bay, tam, chin and muong. Language class was an hour and half today, but it was so much fun, especially since our teacher is great. We had the typical Vetnamese food for lucnh again, which was rice, pork, bananas and shrimp.

This afternoon we visited the Phu My Hung Corporation. It has worked with designing companies to build a giant, suburban communitee south of Ho Chi Minh City. The communtiee is part of a master plan to build a bigger, new business communitee south of Vietnam. The current mini, city wenter we visited has huge corporations, malls, parks, hospitals, international schools, recreational facilities, restaurants, small businesses and lots of upscale villas and homes. I was impressed by the planning and increasing level of  success scene in Ho Chi Minh City through this new city center.

Tonight, out friends from UEF are taking us out to dinner and to get ice cream! It should be a fun time with them as well! I am thoroughly enjoying experiencing a new culture!

Day 1: A New World

May 7, 2012

So today has been so exciting! I can hardly believe I am half way around the world!

The journey here was interesting to say the least. We basically ate and napped the whole way because we had no relevance to what time it was. We certainly bonded as a group during that time as we took loops around the plane aisles. We met an interesting man on the plane who was from Vietnam and he gave us a lot of handy facts about Vietnam, such as:

·         They do not use water bottles or cups, but will give you a drink in a baggie with a straw

·         Sometimes toilets are holes in the ground

·         A barbeque sandwich should cost under a dollar…so do not get ripped off

·         The exchange rate is currently 20,600 dung to 1 US dollar

·         1000’s of mopeds will try to cross an intersection at one time

·         The police will take your moped from you on the street if you do not have its registration with you

When we got to Hong Kong airport, I bought my first beer (Heineken)! So exciting since the drinking age in Hong Kong is 18 and they didn’t even card us! We got into Ho Chi Minh City around midnight last night and got back to the hotel around 1:30 am. Two kids lost their suitcases, but they should have them by today or tomorrow. This morning we went to UEF (The University of Economics and Finance). They had a welcome ceremony for us, where they performed puppet show and sung songs for us. We were paired up with Vietnamese students from the school. My student friend was named Tian (pronounced Ton), he was an economics major, which honestly sounds like easy math classes to me. Next, we exchanged gifts with the people at the school. Well we basically got gifts from them, and we gave them some Pitt stuff.

Next, we had our first Vietnamese language class! It was so exciting to learn some phrases. ‘Bang den a ye’ means ‘What’s your name?’ when you are talking to a friend, and you would respond with ‘Doy den la Jackie.’ Hello is ‘sin chao.’ Thank you is ‘gam on’ and sorry is ‘sin loui.’ ‘How much does it cost’ is ‘guy ni beau new’. (All of the previous spellings correspond to the Vietnamese pronunciation.) The student that helped me during this class was named Tu, but she went by Lizzie. She and her friend invited us to go out with them tomorrow night as well.

The lunch they gave us was really good too! We had rice with vegetable soup on top, pork covered in fried rice (which looked like rice crispie balls), chicken, cauliflower, and cherries (they looked like mini apples). It was interesting to learn to eat with chop sticks and try new foods.

This afternoon, we went to the US Consulate in Vietnam. We learned about the politics and economy situation in Vietnam. During our briefing we learned that Vietnam has little crime, and most crime occurs from purse theft…we were very careful about keeping a hand on our bags even if they were over our shoulder for the rest of the day. It was raining a little while we were there, but we took a tour of the grounds, which holds significant landmarks to incidents from the Vietnam War. Part of the old embassy’s groundwork can still be scene at the consulate’s location.

Tonight we have a welcome dinner planned at a traditional Vietnamese restaurant. Our guide, Tran, says you have to roll the food with your hands to eat it. I could also use a nap right now, but I have dinner in 30 minutes…

One more comment is the absurd amount of mopeds that are on the streets! You have to be careful not to get hit, even when it is you’re turn to cross a road or you are on the sidewalk. Well that’s all for now!