Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Day 2: Hot hot hot

Day 2

Today was a very long day. We started with a lecture at UEF about Ho Chi Minh City's city developments and economy. A guest speaker talked to us about issues within Vietnam and their plans to solve issues such as reducing traffic and increasing public transportation. This was very interesting to hear yet made me feel bad because I don't even know about those issues in my own city. The economics portion I found to be confusing and happy that I'm not a business major.

We then had another language class which was more active then yesterday! I feel I have made more progress although it is still a large struggle. We also got a larger tour of UEF. The school is very beautiful. 

After class we went to the same place for lunch as day 1. The food was good but this was my first time experiencing a bathroom what was described before the trip as a Vietnamese public bathroom and it was just as gross as expected with no toilet paper or soap. 

After this we had our first company visit. We went to Phu My Hung with some students from UEF. Phu My Hung is a is basically a developing company helping to improve Vietnam. The Phu My Hung township is what I would expect Westlake to look like if someone was given endless amounts of money to renovate it. It seemed like a little mini utopia suburb within the city. Although this idea seemed very cool, I was very confused on where such a large amount of money came to build such a place when Cleveland can't even repave its roads. Also, it seemed like a weird distribution of wealth and was weird drive through Phu My Hung then within minutes seeing people living in shacks in fields. It seemed like it could lead to long term issues with the wealthy moving leaving and moving into places like it. 







This day was exceptionally hot. It was very difficult, I had never experienced heat so bad. When we got back to the hotel we all immediately went to the pool although we were all already soaked in sweat. The pool is really cool and on the roof top of the hotel.

Once we were all cooled down we went out to dinner with out friends from UEF. This restaurant was really cool. People were constantly cheering and it was someone's birthday so they turned off all the lights and gave sparklers. Everyone there seemed to be having such a good time and were dancing along to the music like the Macarena. It was very funny. The food came raw and we had to cook it on little grills on the table. Very fresh... people's shrimp were still moving.. Although this was very fun it also was very crowded so we were all very hot and decided to get ice cream. We went to a mall that also felt very American. It was filled with stores like Chanel, Ralph Lauren, and Lacoste. I was extremely exhausted and fell asleep the moment I got back to the hotel. 

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