Day 11

Today was a pretty intense day. We started the day off by going to the Cuchi Tunnels which was really interesting. It is always so eye opening to see the Vietnam War from the Vietnamese side. We saw all the traps that they used against the Americans, there was one where they covered the spikes in sewage so that when an American would fall into the trap they would get injured and the injury would get infected. The traps were aimed to injure the soldier not kill them because then other soldiers would have to help take care of them so it took a few soldiers off their hands instead of only one. The cool part of the Cuchi Tunnels was when we actually got to go inside the tunnels. The tunnels were so small we had to be on our hands and knees the whole time, by the end of it we were all dripping in sweat so I can't even imagine being a soldier and dressed in army gear in those tunnels for days. After the tunnels we went to the War Remnants Museum. This museum was a little more intense, it really hit home seeing all the horrific things the American soldiers did to the Vietnamese. It's amazing how forgiving the Vietnamese are of all that happened. If you ask almost any Vietnamese their feelings towards Americans it is nothing but positivity and forgiveness. Our culture teacher was telling us that his father was exposed to agent orange and him and his brother were not affected but his brother's daughter has a deformity because of it. However he said there was no reason to be angry with Americans and that it is in all in the past which I really admire. Personally, I was most amazed by the agent orange display in the museum. The images and stories are so heart breaking because people are still being affected by it today. They don't know how long it will take for it to stop being passed down from generation to generation. Even people who weren't exposed to it in the war but ate fish out of a sea that was contaminated with it by accident have had children and their children had deformities. There were also stories of American soldiers who went home and had babies and their babies had deformities from the soldier's exposure to the agent orange while they were at war. It just is so sad to me that it all had to happen and so many innocent lives were taken. Out of the 3 million Vietnamese killed during this war, 2 million were civilians.
      So on a brighter note, to cheer ourselves up after the museum we went back to Snowy and got ice cream. Then we went to a famous souvenir shop downtown to do a little last minute shopping since we won't have time to shop tomorrow and tomorrow is our last day :(. Tonight we are taking our Vietnamese friends to dinner at a famous beer garden downtown and treating them as a thank you for their hospitality. After dinner we are going to go out to our favorite clubs and make the best of our second to last night together. I'm not ready to leave all these people we have all gotten so close.

Day 10

Today we were all really tired, none of us could stay awake in culture class or language class. We had a very late night the night before at Lush. But we had lunch then went to a company visit at a Real Estate Firm. Patty talked about what it's like to be an American living in Vietnam and all about Vietnam's economy and way of life. It was cool to hear her perspective on it plus we got really good smoothies. Then we all napped for about three hours and woke up again to go to dinner. We went to dinner with our Vietnamese friends which is always so fun. I got to ride on Lizzie's motor bike on the way there which is my favorite thing in the world. Riding on the back of a motor bike in this city is an eye opening experience.  Literally. It's so much fun. I have become pretty good friends with Lizzie, she is me and Tom's language partner and is the sweetest girl. After dinner we went to a place called Snowy. Snowy has the best ice cream that I have ever had in my life, no exaggerations. After ice cream we came back to the hotel because we all need a night in and a good sleep.

Day 9

Yesterday we had culture class and language class as usual. Then we had a company visit with Glass Egg digital media. It is a video game developer and outsourcer. It was pretty interesting to see how much effort goes into something as small as creating a car or a building in a video game. It takes 50 days to make a car and they train 40 people for 6 months to only accept 2 usually. Glass Egg owns a club called Lush that we have been to a few times here and they guys that work there got us a VIP booth for that night and free drinks all night at Lush. It was so much fun and we got to talk with the manager of Lush, he was a really interesting guy. After the Glass Egg meeting we went to Ben Than market. It is a big flea market type of place where you bargain (we got to use our vietnamese). They mainly just have lots of little souvenir types of nick-nacks. After Ben Than we went to dinner at a the Barbecue Garden. It was lots of meat on skewers that you cook over a burner on your table which was neat. It's a really pretty place, its outdoors and has lots of lights and music. I can't believe how fast the time is going, I wish it would slow down!

Day 8

Today we spent the whole day with Viet Thai International. They are the owners of Highland Coffee which is a Vietnamese coffee store that has literally probably like 3 locations on every street, it is huge. They also have a Hard Rock Cafe so we got to go there for lunch and hear them talk about the international businesses they work with. They also have an Aldo, Armani store and tons of others. Listening to them talk  was so interesting to me. I realized that I want to do a global management major, I find the whole concept of market research and emerging markets to be fascinating. The lives of these American men who live abroad here and work sound absolutely amazing and their work is so interesting. After we listened to them talk and ate at the Hard Rock they took us on a tour of a mall that has many of their stores in it and offered us a 30% discount in all of them, it was so generous of them. Then we went to a Highland Coffee shop and  sat in their training room and got to hear all about the coffee industry. Vietnamese love coffee, it is a huge part of their economy and their coffee is so unique tasting and delicious. Then we had karaoke with the Viet Thai employees which was a lot of fun, I was amazed at how good of singers they all were they put us to shame! After that we went out to a frozen yogurt place for dinner... our stomachs all needed a little break ... and went out to a new club called Velvet.

Day 7

I can't believe we have already been here a week, it's going by so fast. Last night we went to a really good restaurant that was conveyer belt hot pot style and the food would go around on the conveyer belt then you take what you want and cook it. It was really yummy until we found out the eggs had actual chickens inside them.. After dinner we went to club Lush which was a lot of fun as always.Today was such a fun day, we took a boat to the most beautiful beach town. We went to two Buddhist churches that were so beautiful. We got to light inscents and pray to the buddha, it was a really amazing place. We also got to buy a baby pigeon and make a wish then let it free. After the buddhist churches we climbed up a mountain that led to a humongous jesus statue. It was 100 degrees and very very humid, I have never sweat so much in my life it was very very hot. The hike was so pretty the whole way up the mountain there was the most amazing view of the ocean. After the hike we went to lunch and then the beach. The beach was so much fun, it was a really nice beach the water was really warm and pretty clear. There wasn't any seaweed or anything like that in the water and there wasn't really waves so it was a little different than what we are used to but it was so nice. Tin and Anh set up relay games for us to play on the beach. They were absolutely hilarious. The first game was a game where you had to put a banana between your legs and hop towards your partner then transfer the banana to in between their legs without using your hands. It got so messy with mushed banana all over everyone but it was so fun. Then we played a game where your team had to fit all the members of the team standing onto one piece of paper without touching the sand. Our team won both games :)  We swam for a while then headed back home. It was a very sandy and sweaty boat ride home. It was such a nice change of pace being out of the city, it was so beautiful I wish we could have stayed the night there. Now we just got done showering and are going to a fancy french restaurant in the city for dinner.

Days 4, 5 and 6

We have been so busy, I haven't had time to blog! We just got back from our day trip to the Mekong Delta. It was so neat to get out of the city and see what is like in a rural setting. We went to a cocoa plantation and processing plant.. we got to try the cocoa products, the chocolate was amazing. We saw all the cocoa trees and how they take the beans out and ferment them. Then we took a boat ride on the Delta, it was so beautiful and we saw all kinds of cool things. Tonight we are going to a hot pot restaurant called Kichi Kichi which has a hot pot. Last night we went to karaoke with the Vietnamese students and it was so much fun. Yesterday in the day we had a lesson on the Mekong Delta and more language class then a company visit at ACDI Voca. ACDI Voca is a NGO that aids farmers and agriculture. The day before that had a culture lesson on Vietnamese culture which was really interesting to learn about. Then had language class and went to the US Consulate. The speaker at the consulate was so interesting, hearing about the global side of business was really cool. We learned about why some companies go global and why they go in the countries they go in. At night the students took us to a restaurant that is known for their chicken and rice, it was a street vendor with chickens running around inside.. Then after that we went to the rex hotel. The rex is a five star hotel that has a roof top deck where you can get something to drink or eat and watch live music. It was a lot of fun the live music was actually really good. In language class we learned how to bargain at the market so when we were walking around we stopped at a tee shirt vendor and tried to put it to use but it didn't really work too well.

Day 3

Today we had three company visits. We went to VSIP which is an industrial park and an urban development company that develops communities similar to that of Phu My Hung. Then we went to 2-6. 2-6 is an optics developer inside the VSIP industrial park. We got to tour the factory that creates the optic lenses and see the processes. Then we took a nap of course. After nap time we went to a bank called Exim Bank. They were so welcoming it was a fun visit. I was amazed when they told us the interest rate in Vietnam is 14%. We had the rest of the afternoon free after the bank tour and it was so much fun. We walked around, got coffee, and shopped. For dinner we went to a Pho restaurant called Pho 24. Pho is a soup that Vietnam is famous for, it is noodles and meat in broth, it is my favorite food we have eaten so far. Now we are back in our hotel room having our blog session.