Day 3-- DRINK UP

Today was our first full day in Vietnam and it was HOT. Both Arielle and I woke up an hour before our alarms (set for 7:15), got dressed and went to breakfast in the hotel (our first Vietnamese meal!). Can't tell you what I ate but it was good. We were then given pimpin' red polos to change into before we went to UEF for our welcoming reception. 

Fast forward to UEF and the spectacular welcoming reception--I couldn't believe how excited/happy the Vietnamese students were to meet us, 20 sleep deprived kids from Pittsburgh. We were given beautiful leis immediately after stepping off the bus, took a group picture and went to a room with a small stage. The reception began with a dance performed by some UEF students (which was amazing), followed by speeches from faculty from both UEF and Pitt. There was another dance performance, we were given gifts and then went to our first language class. 

VIETNAMESE IS HARD TO LEARN. So many sounds and tones and letters and accents. But we tried our best and have more classes the rest of the week to get better.

After class we went to lunch at the canteen at HUTECH (Ho Chi Minh University of Technology). While at the canteen, the girls went down to the lobby to be measured for "ao dai", traditional Vietnamese dress for women. We should be able to wear them by this Friday!

Afterwards we were back on the bus to go to another part of HUTECH to be separated by majors (business and engineering) to listen to lectures from professors of the university. As a business major, I learned about the Vietnamese economy, how to invest in Vietnam, and why it's a good thing. Our speaker was interesting because he went to school (after high school) in Australia. He said that it would have been easy for him to get a job in Australia and stay there to work and live. He decided to come back to Vietnam, however, because he wanted to be rich. Let's say that he would be paid the same amount of money in Australia as he is in Vietnam. In Vietnam he would be considered rich relative to the general population, rather than in Australia. For one reason or another, it was worth it for this man to come back to Vietnam for the status of being rich. I feel that in the United States people strive to be "rich" and hope that it brings a certain status to themselves and their families (whether or not this can be defined as "success" is not up to me, but it sure sounds very American Dream-esque). What I thought was also very interesting was that the HUTECH representative had just finished telling us about the prevalence of agency problems in Vietnam. Agency problems occur when managers act in the best-interest of themselves and not of the company. Agency problems stem from greed and occur in both Vietnam and the United States.

We then came back to the hotel and most of us went to the Co-Op (the local convenience store) for mostly just water and candy. The trip was a short one and once we got back, I went to my room and started spewing blood from my nose. The intense nose bleed was diagnosed by Big B (Bryan) as dehydration (Mike was right, the dehydration hits you like a slap in the face). But after the bleeding finally stopped I got cleaned up to go to dinner with the group. It was another delicious traditional Vietnamese meal. 

Tomorrow's adventures include our first company site visit! We go to visit PHU My Hung tomorrow, the company my group researched. More to follow...

LESSON OF THE DAY: DRINK YOUR WATER. 

Traditional Dance at the Welcome Reception

Vy!

welcome welcome welcome

Endless table of food

Use those chopsticks gurl

Ho Chi Minh City!

Malik eats shrimp!

Day 2-- What day is it?

**Sorry for the delay--technical difficulties!

I am currently on the plane from Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh city, in between a sleeping Rachel and sleeping Kohler. This is our third and final flight of the day (two days??) and I think we are very grateful for that. 

The worst part was probably the first five hours of the 15 hour flight. I fell asleep for an hour, watched a movie, listened to music (the media on the plane had a Beyoncé playlist); and every time I looked at the map on my screen, it was as if we had barely left Chicago. Hours 7 to 11 of the flight are a blur to me, filled with long naps and short periods of actually being awake. Highlights of the flights include actually eating the airplane food and being able to see the cities as we were landing in them. 

After the second (and longest) flight of our three flights, we had about three hours in the Hong Kong airport. A bunch of us got food as others tried to finish their pre-departure papers.

As said before we are on our last and final flight until we come home in two weeks. There is about a hour left of this flight and when we land the plan is to get our bags and get on a bus to go to the hotel. Tomorrow starts early with a reception at the University of Economics and Finance (UEF). Hopefully by that time we'll have a good idea of what day it is!

First airplane meal on the 15 hour flight. YUM.

Candy in the Hong Kong Airport

Chicago!

20 happy kids in the Hong Kong airport