Another busy day

This morning we went to UEF to study in the morning and had culture class and language class. During culture class, we talked about the concept of the yin and the yang, which is apparently really important to the Vietnamese culture. The yin represents a feminine force while the yang represents the masculine force. There is always a little bit of the yang with in the yin, and vice versa. These two elements must always be in harmony for everything to function properly. We also talked about how people give flowers in Vietnam, which I thought was really cool. So, in the United States we usually give someone a dozen roses to someone we care about. However, in Vietnam, when they give flowers, they either give one, three, or nine (nine being the most preferred because it symbolizes "forever"). The only time you can break this rule is at weddings, where you should give two flowers (one for the bride and one for the groom). During language class we learned someone useful phrases. We learned how to ask someone how they are doing (Khỏe không?) and how to tell someone you were fine (tôi khỏe). We also learned a lot of adjectives to describe how we were feeling. I love absolutely love language class, but wish I was better at speaking Vietnamese!


After lunch we had a company visit at Ascenx. It turned out to be such an amazing visit. Ascenx is a small company that is headed by its CEO Tung Bach. Even though they were considered to be a smaller company, they were still doing well, especially due to outsourcing in Vietnam. As much as I enjoyed hearing about his company from an engineering perspective, Mr. Bach, who is a Vietnamese American, was kind enough to share his story with us. After the Vietnamese War, his family became very poor because they lived in the conquered boat. His uncle, who was a Navy captain in the South Vietnamese Army, was able to secure a boat and escaped Vietnam with Mr. Bach. He eventually made it to the United States, where he was raised, studied computer engineering in an American college, and became a CEO of his own company. I thought his story was incredible and felt honored to hear the story of one of the famous "boat people" of Vietnam. After the meeting, Mr. Bach invited us out for coffee, and we accepted and joined him at Highlands Coffee. The coffee was SO good, and I'm excited to go to our Highlands Coffee company visit to get more coffee!


We rested for about an hour at the hotel and then the UEF students picked us up and took us to explore South Saigon on motorbikes. We were all really excited because we were going to be eating Domino's Pizza. Finally, some American food! Because there aren't always enough seats for all twelve of us, Nino, Kathy, and I took a taxi to Domino's, but when we got there no one was in sight. We were convinced that the driver took us to the wrong Domino's and I started to freak out a little bit. But then about five minutes later we saw the rest of the motorbikes pulling up and we were so relieved. Emmy and I split a medium pepperoni pizza (which is about the size of a US small pizza). Even though there were only three sizes, which I would have easily been able to consume a week ago, it was impossible to finish. After only two tiny slices, I felt so full and finally for the first time since I've been in Vietnam, felt very very sick! I should have figured that the first thing to make me sick in Vietnam would be greasy American food. Needless to say, I'm pretty sure I have finally gotten use to the Vietnamese food and would be perfectly fine if I didn't have any American food until I got back to the United States.

Looks delicious, but eating this did not go so well for me!

After dinner we rode the motorbikes to see the Crescent Mall and the Starlight Bridge. The Crescent Mall is a absolutely huge mall in South Saigon that has a lot of really cool stores in it. We walked around the mall for a while, but did not actually go inside because it closed too early. We think we might go back and shop their sometime before we leave because it looks fun. After we walked around the outside of the mall for a while, we walked over to the Starlight Bridge, which is a bridge that lights up at night and over looks the crescent. We took pictures on the bridge and had a really good time just hanging out with each other. The view was so beautiful and I'm so glad we were able to see it.

A picture of the Starlight Bridge and the surrounding area

The lovely ladies of Plus 3 Vietnam doing the sorority squat

Us with our friends from UEF

We took motorbikes back to the hotel after hanging out for a while. The motorbike rides are getting less and less scary every time and I'm not quite as worried about getting killed on one anymore! I think it finally hit me today that I am in Asia (how cool is that?!?!?!) and just how far away I am from home. But I have no desire to leave Vietnam anytime soon because Ho Chi Minh City is such an incredible place. Well, it is getting late now. Mệt quá! (So tired!). 

-Hailee