Perspective Matters

Today was a great day. It started in another culture lecture, which was about religion... so it was not my favorite lecture. We had language class too, where we learned numbers as well as the art of bartering. We had to have a quick lunch, because we had a meeting at the US Consulate promptly at 1 pm.

Getting in was a bit of a process, lots of security. Also, only US citizens could go in... so it was the first time on the trip where no Vietnamese were with us. We met in a meeting room and discussed what the Consulate does in Vietnam with some diplomats. One of the main things is the processing of visa requests to the United States. Additionally, they serve as the body that will aid US citizens who are in trouble in Vietnam.

One of the subdivisions is dedicated to linking Vietnamese people with American people in order to better the relationship between the two countries. This is ironic though, because the Vietnamese people are some of the most enthusiastic people about America that I've ever seen. The people at the Consulate agreed. The linking of the people is important to the relationship of the countries because that is the basis of a strong relationship... a strong relationship between the people.

The next part of the day was the best part of our time here in Vietnam thus far. We met with students at the American Center, a place for Vietnamese students at nearby universities can come and essentially relax, hang out, and study with other students. We walked into a huge room, which was eventually filled with eager Vietnamese students. We split up into groups, so that we were able to talk to them about college (also, just life in general) in America and Vietnam. Because there were so many Vietnamese students there, we had to split up into 1 on 7 scenarios.

At first, it was a little awkward... but when we all got talking, it was so much fun. We talked about everything: what we were studying, where we grew up, what kind of movies we watched, what music we listened to, our favorite Vietnamese foods and restaurants, American culture VS Vietnamese culture, and many more things. We spent over an hour talking, but it really only felt like 10 minutes. I had learned so much in that time, that I will spend days compressing everything that I picked up in the conversations. Another thing we did was they let me practice my Vietnamese with them. Unfortunately, I found themselves giggling constantly at my occasional mispronunciations... but it was all in good fun and I rolled with it. They liked to practice English with me too, because they never really get the chance to speak it with their friends and family.

I came to realize that these students are exactly like me. The things they listen to and watch are the same. The things they think about are the same. The things that they worry about are the same. The things that they want in their futures are things that I want in mine. The conversation was eyeopening to my continuously-expanding amount of appreciation for culture "differences."

Okay enough of all of that "deep" talk. One common thing to ask is how long these students have been speaking English. One of my friends said he has only been speaking for 3 years. I said I was surprised because of how well he spoke it. He then told me that he had taught himself all of it, all by watching videos on YouTube. When I heard this, my jaw dropped to the floor and I was speechless. After he looked at me like I was insane, I told him that his English was honestly 90% as good as mine (which was true), and I had been speaking it all my life. I still can't really believe that, it's just too amazing.

Anyway... Dan, Edziu, and I are going to grab dinner with one of our friends Bo. He said he'll take us to one of his favorite restaurants in Saigon, so we're all excited.

Did my laundry in the tub this morning. Very humbling experience.

Made some iced coffee at breakfast. Not as good as our favorite coffee shop's, but pretty alright nonetheless.

Outside the US Consulate. Dr. Berman is showing us the Vietnamese plaque (Circled), which commemorates the Viet Cong attack on the US Embassy. The United States has a plaque for their perspective inside the fence just opposite the Viet Cong plaque.

Group of Vietnamese students that we talked with.

Me and all of my friends that I was able to talk to personally. Lê is on the far left... he is the one who taught himself English using YouTube.

Glass Egg, too cool

Today was a little bit of a different day. Well, actually we started with the usual breakfast... but after that is when things got a little mixed up. We took a bus to the Jade Emperor Pagoda, which was really interesting. It has been around since about the 11th Century, but the expansion of Saigon had it tucked between houses and shops. Once entering the gates, the land has remained untouched... and people still come to visit regularly. It was very interesting to watch the people come in and out.

We then went to UEF to hear a lecture on the history and culture of Vietnam. This is one of the topics that I find very interesting, so I was enjoying the lecture very much. The professor also focused alot on beyond the city, because most of the citizens do live in the countryside. One of the most interesting points for me is the separation that still exists between north and south Vietnam. I don't want to speak to this point too much, other than that it exists... because I'm posting this on the internet.

We then went on a company visit to Glass Egg, a company that outsources video game art to major companies. Microsoft and Sony are their main customers. Unfortunately, I was unable to take any pictures inside the company, because every project that they work on is completely confidential and copyright infringement is incredibly sensitive in their line of work. We did get to see everything and look over the workers shoulder's as they worked though, which was really cool.

The company began designing cars for games such as Forza (Microsoft). They began with just cars - and not fantasy games - because there was little room for interpretation on their designs. The client sends in a picture of a car, Glass Egg makes the car, and there is no subjectivity involved. As the company has grown, they have dabbled a little bit in fantasy games - but they prefer to remain in the areas where subjectivity and potential disagreement with a client is inexistent. They have made cars and tracks for all of the Forza games, and own exclusive rights to the recent Need for Speed games, meaning that they make all of the cars and tracks in those games.

The company style reminded me of what I've seen Google is set up like. The office is color coordinated, and the employees are all doing their work, but allowed flexibility of workspace... like personalizations, as well as listing to their own music and really being comfortable while they work. All of the work is done on computer animations and with computer designing... something that looked pretty complicated. In talking to the CEO Phil Tran and CFO Steve Green, they told us that when they go to hire employees, they do not care about coding and computer experience. They 100% care about the potential hire's artistic ability... "The computer design part of this can be taught. Anybody can learn that stuff, but the art is something that cannot be taught."

These two guys are very relaxed men, but also incredibly professional at the same time. Very down to earth guys running an incredibly successful company. Phil had an interesting experience when he was younger. His family were Southern Vietnamese and his father saw the risk as the war began to come to a close... which was happening very rapidly. Because of an emotionally charged letter that his father had written to a political friend in San Diego, his family was ensured safety in fleeing from the country. Phil and his family escaped Vietnam just 7 days before the Fall of Saigon. He said that if it weren't for that letter, he thinks he would currently be a waiter at a restaurant in Saigon (HCMC)... and not the incredibly successful and humble CEO that he is. While he was telling his story, our Vietnamese Professor began to tear up a little bit. Her family was also Southern Vietnamese but, unlike Phil, her family did not escape Saigon before the fall. Her father was a soldier for the south, and thus sent to a "re-education camp" after the fall. I found it incredibly interesting to see the two side by side and know that they were both in the same situation before the Fall, but came out with two drastically different results.

Tonight we are going to go to one of the Korean Barbecue places, and then to one of Phil's other investments... a club called "Lush," where he is the owner. It should be a fun night, word on the street is that we may receive some special VIP treatment.

This was a turtle outside the pagoda. It was about 2 feet long and was very stagnant.

Dessert today at lunch were huge plates of mangos. Yesterday it was mangos and pears, but they realized that we only ate the mangos... so they switched it up for us today.

This is in the entrance of Glass Egg... all of the video games that they've worked on. The ones in the frames are all of the Forza games. Other popular titles were Need for Speed and Battlefield 2.

View of Downtown HCMC from the Glass Egg office. If it weren't for all of the economic development, it would still be a full skyline picture, include the larger skyscrapers of District 1.

UEF Theme Song For Days

Today began like any other, with a delicious breakfast with classic Vietnamese food. We left for UEF, and drove through HCMC - like usual. Today was a little more special though because on the way to school, the chicken dance came on the radio. Kinda threw some of us off, but we rolled with it nonetheless.

Our main topic today was development in rural Vietnam, specifically in the Mekong Delta - which encompasses the southernmost part of the country - including Ho Chi Minh City. We learned alot about not only the development in these rural areas with farming, but also with the rich history behind the area as well as the interesting culture. I really enjoyed the lecturer, because he really spoke deeply into the culture. Hearing him speak shows that farming families here in Vietnam are very similar to farming families in the United States - hardworking individuals who can be often handed the short end of the stick. Nonetheless, they persevere and do what they need to do in order to be as successful as they can.

We made a stop at our new favorite coffee shop, where we hope to become regulars. The owner is already beginning to love us (I think), and although she speaks some english, we are beginning to practice our Vietnamese with her.

After our break, we had language class. Today we upped our conversing abilities to the next level, and also began to learn about numbers. I also figured out why those Vietnamese who learn English later in life sometimes have difficulty with verb tense (example: them saying "Yesterday, I go to market and buy milk," instead of "Yesterday, I went to the market and bought milk"). The reason is because in Vietnamese, the verb tense doesn't change... the way to specify that you bought milk yesterday is simply specified by including the word "yesterday." In English, we include the word "yesterday," but also change the verb tense.

After class we had lunch... chicken legs and breaded shrimp. Slowly but surely, the seafood here is beginning to grow on me.

Our company visit today was to the US Commercial Service, an extension of the US Consulate. We spoke to the president, Pat Wells, and he briefed us on what his branch does. Essentially, they provide consulting services to those US companies who wish to perform business in Vietnam. One recent example of success was the expansion of Starbucks to Vietnam (which I still don't get, because Vietnamese coffee is 10 times better, and literally 1/10 the price of Starbucks). Additionally, Nike now officially produces more products in Vietnam than in China... something that I found very interesting. This attests to the growing popularity and advantages of doing business in Vietnam. Mr. Wells noted that in his time here (especially recently), more and more big players are starting to move their businesses to Vietnam because of all of the advantages that the country has to offer. This visit was long and Mr. Wells covered ALOT of material, but I really did enjoy what he was talking about and the insight he had to offer.

We hit up the pool to cool off at the hotel when we got back, and then I went to take a nap. Unfortunately, I slept through dinner and into the night... so that's why I'm writing my blog here at 430 am after about 10 hours of sleep. Oh well, I did need to catch up on sleep... considering I had only 10 hours total since we left Pittsburgh on Saturday.

Note: the title of the post today is because at the welcoming ceremony on Monday, the students did a dance the UEF's theme song. The song became an instant-hit with us, and we kept referring to it whenever we would talk to the Vietnamese Students. Kate, the president of their English Club made us a CD with it, so today on the bus... we listened to it on repeat. She also printed out the lyrics for each of us, so we can study up and sing along.

A picture of Dan and Edzui. Dan is paying the owner of the shop 12,000 Dong for his coffee. That's equivalent to 55 cents.

Our meeting room with Mr. Pat Wells, at the US Commercial Service. He had alot to talk about, and many of us really enjoyed what he spoke about.

Another propaganda poster outside the US Commercial Service window.

Phu My Hung

Today was a very eventful day. We started the morning at UEF, and learned about urban development in HCMC. After a quick morning break (where we got to go to a coffee shop and grab an iced coffee), we had another language class. Once again, the material can be pretty difficult to pronounce, but luckily our Vietnamese friends are able to help us through the class.

The new thing added to today's schedule was a company visit to Phu My Hung, which was the company that my group did our pre-departure report on. It is an Urban Development company, stationed in South Saigon. The visit was very interesting, and it gave us alot more information on the company than what we were able to find in our initial visits online. Dr Berman told me that that's kind of what he designed the process to be... get a good foundation on the company before the trip, and then learn more of the nitty gritty stuff while we have briefing sessions with the executives of the company.

Tonight, we went out with our Vietnamese friends into the city for dinner. We got Pho, which is a very common Vietnamese noodle-soup ish dish. The food was very good, as usual. After dinner we got to walk around downtown, and really got to see the way people in the city interact. The streets are packed with people, even on a Tuesday at 1030 pm. That seems to be the main form of entertainment in the city.... go and hang out outside (pretty much anywhere on the street, sidewalks, common areas, etc) with your friends.

This was the iced coffee that I had on our morning break from class. It pretty much tasted like a dessert.

This is the view from Phu My Hung (south Saigon) looking into the skyline of HCMC. This pond is part of PMH's community.

In the briefing room of PMH. We got to ask the executives of the company questions that we had about anything/everything. 

Our Vietnamese friends picked us up for dinner and we rode on their motobikes to dinner (dont worry mom, we wore helmets). Let me tell you: riding on the back of a motobike through HCMC with all of the people around you, talking to a new friend on the ride (conversing in both English and Vietnamese) was by far the greatest time of my life. Honestly, I've never felt happier than I did on that ride.

I also got to rock the Hello Kitty helmet on the motobike ride. Stylish and safe, just the way I like it.

Props to Kyle for this picture.

Dinner. We ate Pho, which was very good.

First Day in Country

Today was our first day in the country. It started bright and early, and jetlag was pretty inexistent for me. We took a bus through HCMC and ended up at the University of Economics and Finance (UEF) where we were finally able to meet our Vietnamese counterparts. Just like us, they had to apply to this program and we get to meet up with them everyday. It's cool because they help us with all things Vietnam, and we get to help them work on their English (which they're all very good at - its the primary second language, and taught in most schools to the kids).

There was a welcoming ceremony, with beautiful dancers and great speeches. Dr. Berman even gave his speech in Vietnamese, something that surprised us all a little. We spent the morning conversing with our new friends, taking pictures, and eventually ending up in a classroom where they began to teach us the language. Vietnamese is one of the hardest languages to learn, because tone determines many things. One word can have 6 different meanings depending on how you say it. The meaning of the word "ma" changes depending on the accent over the a. It could mean "ghost," "which," "horse," "grave," "mother," or "rice seedling." My partner helped me through this lesson and we also practiced basic conversations.

We had dinner at Nha Hang Ngon, a very nice restaurant. We were taken through the kitchen of the restaurant, which was an outdoor - almost assembly line - style. We got to have a good sampling of many different Vietnamese dishes. The food here is really really good. I found that its best to eat first, and then ask what you just ate. That way I don't mentally psych myself out. So far its been a great strategy.

These are the drinks at breakfast. The left is coffee (really strong, hint of chocolate, thicker consistency than American Coffee). Vietnamese also mix condensed milk in their chocolate sometimes, which makes it taste like a dessert. On the right is orange juice, and in the center is corn broth.... which tastes exactly what it sounds like.

Edziu and I with some of our new friends. They welcomed us off the buses with lei's, which were made of real flowers.

My partner and I in Language Class, where we began to study Vietnamese.

Picture of the street, where motobikes constantly move in waves. The best way to describe the streets is "organized chaos."

The kitchen of Nha Hang Ngon, which was long tables lined up in along both sides of the restaurant.

36 Hours of Travel

I began the trip early Friday morning at the Greyhound Station. I took the bus from Cleveland to Pitt, and checked in with everybody else and just hung around for the day.

We then spent the night at Pitt, and left for the Pittsburgh Airport at 6am on Saturday. We flew to O'Hare Airport in Chicago, only about a 2 hour flight. We then had a layover in Chicago, and then then had the big 15 hour flight to Hong Kong (random fact that I learned was that Hong Kong is actually kind of a province of China).

Long Story short: 15 hours on a plane is actually not that bad. Well the main reason for this was because the plane had great movie selections, with pretty much every Oscar nominated film this past year available to watch for free. I watched Whiplash (so good), Boyhood (also very good), and a third movie that I can't remember so it probably wasn't that good. Once I was done with this, I took some Benadryl to knock myself out for the rest of the flight. Next thing I knew, we had landed in Hong Kong.

Our Layover in HK was about 3 hours long. This was actually nice because it gave us time to sit down and eat some real food. We then boarded on our flight to Ho Chi Minh City, which was about two and a half hours. I pretty much slept the whole time on this flight.

When we got out of the airport, the first thing that greeted us was a wave of humidity. Dr. Berman told us this many times this past semester, but its one of those things that - until you feel it - you can't fully imagine it. We took a bus to the hotel, and got a quick glimpse of the streets and people in the city as we drove.

The hotel is very nice, and our third floor room even has a balcony overlooking the street out front. We were welcomed by a fully stocked fridge, which unlike American Hotels, the things on the inside were very cheap. For perspective, 1 can of Coke is equivalent to a 15 cent charge...something that would probably be $5 in an American Hotel. Tomorrow starts early, so about to get a good night sleep (its a little after 2 am here right now).

In Hong Kong, as seen in the picture, there are lots of mountains surrounding the airport which look really cool.

This sign was taken on the bus, so sorry for the blur. The "40" represents the 40th anniversary of the US pulling out of Vietnam, which is a really big holiday here. Signs like these were scattered all across the city on the drive to the hotel.