Summary Journal

The Vietnamese industries looked like what I imagined our industries to look like here in the U.S. However, the working conditions and wages leave something to be desired. The place that stuck out the most with bad working conditions was II-IV, even though I'm sure it is the same all over the city. II-IV stands out because we asked the guy who was giving us a tour, and he said that they lived in dorms smaller than us with twice the people, and their wages were exponentially lower than our minimum wage. We could also see the working conditions firsthand, and I could tell they were not so great. Vietnam does have some diversity issues in the workplace as well. I remember at the Glass Egg, one of the higher-ups was a woman, which was a really big deal. That still exists in some places in the United States, but nowhere near as bad. And really, gender is one of the only diversity issues that they can obviously discriminate against, so its one of the only ones they have to focus on fixing. I think this all effects the business in the United States, because we would not be able to produce the same amount of things for as little money. The working conditions and wages of the workers at II-IV were pretty bad, and people in the United States would not be able to work like this. This effects the business because we have to outsource the petty work like this, to countries just like Vietnam.

This trip made me realize that a broader education would benefit everyone. More and more jobs require foreign interaction, and these two weeks showed me that you have to actually learn how to interact with foreign people, even if you have a common language. Talking with these students was difficult and draining even though their English was understandable, and this was only chatting about our lives. In a professional setting, language is even more important, yet difficult for both parties, the native and the foreigner. I am glad I had this experience, because it was the first step in learning how to interact with people abroad, and the key is patience. I think that broadening the classroom experience into learning about different cultures is a good idea, but the most important thing we can do is learn at least one different language. In my time abroad I noticed that almost everyone spoke enough English to communicate with us, and in America this just would not be the case, even with a more common language like Spanish or French. I think learning a different language is the most important step to preparing for a global economy, and I plan to continue taking Spanish classes and spend at least a semester in a Spanish speaking country.

A lot of companies that we talked to and the people that they met didn't give us too much information about the colleges they went to. The man who gave us the Phu My Hung presentation did, but his is a special case that links in to what I previously said about learning languages. He went to college in the United States, became fluent in English and got a degree, and is now probably pretty well off even though he was pretty young. Most of the people we met did have training though, just like here in the USA. The main company that talked about technology was Glass Egg. A main strain on their business was keeping up with the new technologies, between the video game platforms and the programs they made their products on. Without life-long learning and new training, the business would never advance. If the employees don't learn anything new, the business won't produce anything new. An example of business competition that we all can see is Apple iPhones and the hundred other "smartphones" from different brands. These other companies had to learn how to perfect the touch screen in order to compete with Apple.

The only article I read in Vietnam had to do with my company, Phu My Hung. It was about some land opening up, and it was a debate over who was going to try to get it. There are similar land disputes in the U.S., but it is still different because of how the Communist government gets the last say in it. The connections that were made between people's social life and professional life were their respect for elders (or higher ups) and sometimes about religion. When I asked people what they knew about the U.S., they generally had a good idea about what was going on. Some of the students I asked gave the same response as I would, which was a shy laugh followed by some obvious facts like Obama's our president. I think they knew a bit more about us, but didn't know political lingo well enough to start an argument or anything. Sadly, I knew nothing about their country, which was once again a bit embarrassing, and once again stresses the importance of a broader education, and also shows us that a current events class could go a long way. Vietnam's industry's issues do not really seem to effect us over here in America, but it is still something that we should know about.

Compared to the communication between us and the Vietnamese students, communicating with the business students seemed like a piece of cake. However, it was definitely hard to try to work with a cross discipline team. There was the basic challenge of business students not knowing engineering lingo, and vice versa, so every little question about something turned into a back story on some general business concept that us engineers never learned about. I also noticed that there was a distinct difference just in how the engineers thought compared to the business students. This mainly came out at some points when us students were free to ask the companies questions. The business students' questions were definitely more about the economy and the business strategies behind the companies, while the engineers asked more technical things when possible. This gave me an insight into how it will be in the workplace, and I can see how hard it is going to be. Industrial Engineers will even have a totally different way of thinking than Chemical Engineers, which I think will be a whole other learning experience, but at the same time is how everything works.

This experience taught me so much, without me even realizing it. I am so thankful for everyone involved in organizing this trip, all of the companies who presented to us, UEF for hosting us, and most importantly all of the people that I met on this trip.

Sam Sam and I

So its now just Sam, Dr. Berman and I remaining in the country. I saw Dr. Berman at breakfast, and then me and Sam got lunch at a nice restaurant. We relaxed until dinner, where we went to a french place with some vietnamese students, and just had alot of fun with them. We went to a coffee place that was really nice and had a waterfall. The next day we went to our friend Ngoc's house for lunch, went to the post office and the church, and then Anh's house for dinner. At dinner, the Vietnamese students threw me a surprise birthday party and bought me and Sam a present!! I can't believe this experience, and I am so so so so sad to leave the country. The past 2 days we had without the group were so amazing, relaxing, and fun, and we really got to deepen our relationship with the Vietnamese students. I am so happy I went on this trip and will definitely be coming back in the future. I want to thank Dr. Berman and Brian for giving us the most amazing experience I've had in my life to date.

Last Day (with the group)

It was the group's last full day here! I am sad to see them all leave, but really excited about my extra days to relax in the country. Today was just a really fun day. We played soccer and basketball with some of the students from UEF. Us being Americans and all, we got really, really, really competitive. It was obviously unbelievably hot, and so the strenuous games really took a toll on us, but we all played and had an awesome time. After the games were over, we said goodbye to all of our friends and gave them our pitt t-shirts as gifts. It was really sad to say goodbye, because realistically we will probably never see these kids again. I hope to stay in touch with them on Facebook!

We had the afternoon to do whatever we wanted, so a few of us went to the zoo. Although it was a cool zoo with exotic creatures, the quality of life for the animals was a little atrocious, and so it was kinda hard to enjoy. We chilled out for a little after this and tied up some loose ends at the market and stuff. Then we got ready for our last dinner, which we thought was gonna be with the UEF students and teachers, but sadly was just us. The dinner was on a boat on the Saigon River, and it was absolutely delicious food and had an absolutely gorgeous view of the city. It was a really nice way to end the group trip. After dinner, everyone had to go pack up all of their stuff. I got to relax a little because I still had a few days, but it was a melancholy night. We woke up at like 3 AM to head over to the airport, and Sam and I went to say goodbye to everyone, and then returned to the hotel with Tin Tin and Dr. Berman.

Muoi mot

Today was our last day of language class!! It was pretty sad to say goodbye to some of the students, because it was the last time we were going to see some of them. I can't believe this trip is almost over, and I cant believe how much I've experienced these past 2 weeks. After our language calss, we went to our favorite lunch place for the last time ever, and our language teacher joined us. After our lunch, we went to the War Remnants Museum. This was a very different experience than I've ever had at a museum. Having been called the American War Crimes Museum, I knew I would be in for some disturbing exhibits, but I couldn't expect what I actually saw. If Dr. Berman hadn't warned us about the museum, I would have lost it. It put Americans in a very bad light concerning the war. There were things that we had learned about in high school, and I drew connections to, but in America we were taught about how we were the good guys, and this was the opposing viewpoint. It was a very chilling experience, and everyone was very somber walking around, and even once we finished. It really made me question history in general, because no matter where you go, it is biased.

After the museum, we had some free time, and then ended up all going to dinner together at the Rex Hotel. We ran into Dr. Berman on the way over, and so he joined us for dinner!! He told us about how historic the hotel was, and how during the war, soldiers would sit right where we were sitting and have a beer while watching the war go on over the river, about a half mile away. Even though it is a very developed area now, I thought about how the countryside looked and pictured how it must have been so many years ago. It was a really cool experience, and always nice for all of us students to be together.

Tenth

We've spent 10 days here, and some people are definitely ready to go home. I never want to leave, but I have a few extra days anyway so I'm trying to not think about that. Today was our last company visit day!!!! Very exciting. As fun as the company visits are, I think we all prefer either being at the school with the Vietnamese students or having free time. Anyway, our first company was the Saigon Newport Corpration. We went to one of the terminals, and the size of it amazed me. there were boxes all over and boats and cars and it was really cool to see how everything was organized. We had a presentation from one of the higher-ups here, and he was a military man. One student asked if he had to train for the army to get this job, and I found it interesting to hear that he didn't, that when he was hired for the job he was automatically given the lieutenant position. I thought this was slightly unfair to all the people who train to be in the army and work for years to try to get to his ranking.

 some of the huge boxes

more huge boxes, ships in the background

After the presentation, which was probably one of the funner ones we had because out guy was so energetic, we went to this awesome lunch place. It had little huts over water, statues, and thatched roofs. It was extremely picturesque, and I took some time out of lunch to get some nice shots. After lunch, we went to Kien A Corporation as our last company visit, and they fund UEF, so I thought it would be cool to see what kind of a business could fund a school. It was kind of like a smaller scale Phu My Hung, but still had a creepy side to it, because it seemed really unpopulated. We got to go up to the penthouse though, which had cool views of the surrounding area. For dinner some of us split up. The group I was with went to a place called Zest. It was a hilarious dinner because the place was totally empty except for us, and the owners asked to take a picture of us to put on Facebook.....It was another fun day.

Some picture of the gorgeous lunch place

looking down from the penthouse

surrounding area of Kien A

And 9

Back to the usual shenanigans at UEF followed by company visits. Today we had culture class, followed by language class, followed by the same lunch place. After this, we went to the Nam Vietnam Bank, shortened to Navi Bank. Don't ask me why it isn't the Viet Nam Bank. This was a fun visit because one of our Vietnamese friends came along to translate.

For dinner we went to an Italian restaurant called Pomodoro that was absolutely amazing. I got gnocchi which I rarely even get at home,so I was a happy camper that night.

There was nothing too noteworthy about this day, so I'm gonna take the rest of this blog to go through some random comments I have on Vietnam.

The traffic is still ridiculous but I'm starting to get used to it. I saw one accident the whole time I've been here, and it wasn't even that bad. I think the reason there aren't a hundred more accidents a day is because everybody is going pretty slow, like not above 40, and nobody ever gets angry at other drivers. If someone honks, they seem to do it in an amicable manner only to remind other drivers that they are there.

Everyone here is so worried about getting even the slightest bit tan. I talked a little bit about Dee, who wore head to toe clothing into the ocean, after wearing head to toe clothing on our 120 degree hike. He is a little extreme, but all the other Vietnamese I have met are also constantly worried about their skin tone. I have seen shorts on a girl once this entire trip, unless it is at night at a club, in which case I've seen some of the shortest skirts in existence.

Speaking about the clubs, they are pretty fun. We've been to a few and went back to one the other day, and we always have a good time. The one club, Apocalypse, is littered with prostitutes and security guards, so there's a certain aura to it, but because we always go as a group, we end up having a good time. The other one, Lush is more fun. I still don't have any pictures of it, though. Tuesdays nights are ladies night, where girls get free drinks til 12. We attended this, and it was nice to not have to spend any money.

Spending money here is easy to do. Everything is so much cheaper than America. There's a Starbucks a few minutes away by taxi, and me and Clarissa are planning to go there to see if its cheaper or the same. But you can get a 5 dollar entree that is so delicious that you come close to ordering another, until you realize you're full. I'm definitely eating a lot less here, but what I do eat is such high quality that I kind of don't even notice.

Just to reiterate, the food here is amazing. Some of the best food I've ever had. I've had amazing Vietnamese, Italian, French, and American.... Pretty high quality, yet still so cheap. I've lived like what I imagine celebrities to have lived like these past 2 weeks, between the stares everywhere I go, and the delicious restaurants at beautiful venues. I could get used to it, but alas, in less than a week I'll be back in the states.

More Than Halfway

After our weekend, Dr. Berman went easy on us for a day. We started out with a language class, and then we had a tour of Ho Chi Minh City. We stopped at the major monuments, including the Reunification Palace, the Notre Dame Cathedral, and the Post Office. The Palace was grandiose and gorgeous. I went to the top where there was a fantastic view looking down one of the main streets of Ho Chi Minh City. All over the city there are pictures of the North Vietnamese tank breaking down the front gates of this palace, and so actually being here was another time of reflection about the war. This is an important monument, because its where South Vietnam surrendered to North Vietnam, and finally put an end to the war. 

Reunification Palace

The tank breaking through the gates

Here are the same gates, tens of years later

Notre Dame Cathedral

Post Office

After this, we went to an authentic Vietnamese market in the Chinatown of Vietnam. This was quite an experience. It was a big indoor thing with a bunch of stands set up, and we were the only white people there. In class we were taught how to bargain with the sellers, but when we went to this market, every stand basically had a fixed price and you could maybe get things down 50 cents. Not at all what i thought it would be like. It was really interesting to see the lifestyles these people live, though, and I found myself thinking about how lucky I am. We saw some deformed people, and learned that this could potentially be from agent orange, even though its so long after. It was a valuable experience and really authentic. 

The tourist market is called Benh Thanh, and this is much more what I was expecting. A stand was selling shot glasses for 150,000 Dong each, and I bargained it down to 6 for 250,000. Felt pretty good about it. I got some souvenirs for my loved ones but still need to go back because I ran out of money pretty quickly. After this, we went to a phenomenal French restaurant called Titi. I have yet to have a bad meal here, by the way. Every place we eat is delicious. Especially the different places we go for dinner. The lunch at UEF is getting old, but so does anything after having it multiple days in a row.

So yeah we went to Titi, and I had some ostrich, which tasted a bit like beef, but was just a bit more tender. So good. We were planning to do something fun after this dinner, but we came back to the hotel after and I lay in my bed for a few minutes and passed out for the night. Found out the next day that this happened with just about everyone else. We have really tiring days, even when were having fun.