Day 9

Today a majority of the group woke up early to take Andrew up on his offer on going to a French Pastry shop a ‘block away’. Now I have finally understood his margin of error with a block and it’s roughly a one to two mile radius. Regardless we went on a voyage and found this amazing pastry shop. They had literally everything you could dream of and it was so good. I got about 5 different pastries for a total of 2 dollars ≈ 40,000 dong, this was shocking because this in the states should probably be about 3 dollars for each pastry I had. It turns out many amazing French shops remain from French influences when they ruled in Vietnam. This can also be seen in various structures as French Architects had a great impact of many structures that remain today.

After the scrumptious breakfast we headed to a business related stock market Viet Capital Securities Company. There we were briefed shortly on what the company did, as many Vietnamese people watched 3 stock screens that represented a majority of businesses in Ho Chi Minh City. This was a little harder to grasp but I believe the company simply sold stocks to interested buyers, the Vietnamese carefully studying the screens. Despite the size of this condensed room it reflected any typical stock market across the world, people anxiously awaiting a valued purchase and brokers selling stocks. It was another very unique experience to add to my list of what I witnessed in Vietnam.

Once finished a bit early than expected we changed gears into Tourist mode and went traveled to the Tax Center. This building was like any American Mall three stories tall containing as many upscale products you could imagine. It was very westernized and a flashback to shopping at home versus the typical Vietnamese Markets. Here however bartering, as Vietnamese custom, was in effect and that meant I was determined to get the lowest price always. Rayna and I went searching on the top floor for gifts for our parents and family and turned out quite successful.

Lunch was at the Victory Hotel buffet so as a group we headed back and began feasting. Today my stomach had recovered to about half strength so as Dr.Berman offered snakehead fish to me and I obliged. I still, however, tried the soft serve Vietnamese ice cream and it was phenomenal. This rekindled a memory to Ice Cream I have eaten before at the Chincoteague Beach. The kind they serve at the mini-putts that is part gelatin and sooo good.

Next the group gathered and we traveled to E-Town 2 located next to E-Town, which housed Glass Egg Digital Media. There we met with the CEO’s of Ascenx Technologies and were given a very detailed presentation. Their company, Ascenx, consists of electrical and mechanical engineers that work on remanufacturing old technologies to newer more efficient ones. What these engineers do is remarkable because it’s extremely innovative and rigorous having to work on projects for generally 3-months at a time and completely redesign the initial product. A few examples were changing old computer monitors into flat screen space efficient ones. As an engineer it is so inspiring see what can actually be done with the knowledge I am learning through college.

On top of the presentation Tung T. Bach had an amazing story tying into everything we have been learning about the Vietnam-American War and it’s relations to the Vietnamese people of how it has affected differently. His story was of his uncle who was great naval officer of South Vietnam. He had wanted to escape to the refuge island in 1975 but his grandfather said no. As a result of his uncle’s defiance he was sent to a re-education camp. Regardless his uncle had a brilliant mind and an instinct to survive as well as Tung’s mother who rode a day away to the camp to support him for 3 years. After this time he finally escaped with two others navigating at night through the rivers of Vietnam. He then remained totally aliased only confiding in family, devised more plans to escape to the refuge island. Eventually he had 3 tickets to leave for the United States and he chose him because his mother’s loyalty and his youngest sister because she most likely to live the longest. It was remarkable that he was picked over brother’s son as in Vietnamese tradition he would be selected. To accomplish everything the Uncle told him they were just going to the field. Next thing he knew they were boarding boat in the Mekong Delta and covered with fish to remain hidden. His uncle navigated away from Viet Cong ships out to the ocean and had everything planned to sail like a mastermind. Once finally at the Refuge Island Tung realized never see mom or dad he was very sad but his uncle became both his father and mother. That’s where he traveled to California and met his partner another Vietnamese-American and eventually established Ascenx. Now a 1.2 million company they are extremely thankful for the United States involvement in Vietnam. War clearly had impacted people negatively but there are some, like this, unbelievable success stories. They were so polite and positive they even took us out to have coffee with them. This was probably the most amazing experience I had in Vietnam with such kind people. It speaks wonders how their business has had such success as they themselves have such amazing character. They are something I one day aspire to be.

Once we finished our time at Ascenx we were recommended to go to ‘Black Cat’ for the best burgers in Vietnam. This was a great decision as these burgers were unmatched in Vietnam they were incontension, in my mind, with any burger in the states. On top of everything it was nice continuing a stabilizing trend for my stomach. It would surprise you after a certain time in a country how refreshing having food from home can be. At the end of the night the group went out and had a great time interacting with Vietnamese residents out at Club Lush.

Day 8

Today we woke up to same routine like a typical Monday. For breakfast I recovered ten fold by drinking Vietnamese Gatorade, ‘Revive’, and eating their saltine crackers to try and regain some stability in my digestive track. Slowly but surely I think I’ll eat my way back into recovery. After breakfast I put in a notice with the hotel about the money I lost and then we packed into our trusty bus and headed off to UEF for class.

Upon entry at the University Tony approached me and set up playing basketball at night at the local stadium with his friends we had ice cream and ‘caphe’ with. I then headed to Vietnamese Culture class where we learned about the ancient history of Vietnam. The highlights of the lecture that stick out in my mind were that Vietnam had fended off Genghis Khan, one of the most powerful Chinese emperors, three separate occasions, through their tactical knowledge of the North Vietnam land. Eventually Vietnam attempted to completely remove Chinese ideals from its culture. To do this they first had to remove Confucianism and decided to replace it with Buddhism. However the Vietnamese government decided since Buddhism doesn’t have any order within its fundamentals they instituted that the capital is surrounded by a Confucian temple and practice. This lecture was very informative and so interesting.

Inbetween Culture and Language class I stopped by the Can Tin, their cafeteria, and stocked back up on Revive to keep feeling better. I also tried the bread looking croissant that was half butter half bread and somewhat tasty.

Language class was half a review day and half learning counting. I have personally had difficulty with listening and performing Vietnamese since I am a visual learner, but the numbers were a lot easier to recite. We found out also Friday there will be an exam covering the expressions and numbers covered throughout the week.

At lunch at the can tin I ate rice and had some grumbling going on inside me but definitely feeling a lot better than Sunday. The chiefs also figured out what we like and served only rice, French fries, bread, shrimp, and a type of beef. Next we headed over to University of Agriculture and Forestry. We were given 3 presentations on the University’s History, Vietnam USA Catfish History and the University's involvement in Catfish. Though very through it had been a long day and the presentations were a little tiring. It is pretty remarkable their significant growth since starting the program in the late 1990s. After the presentations they drove us to our last stop, an on campus research facility where they focus on producing better environmentally friendly food for the mass produced catfish. We took some perfectly staged photo ops and began the trek back home.

Upon arrival we went immediately to the COOP or the local Vietnamese Grocery store and stocked up on much needed goods. Then us guys, Justin, Matt, David, and myself, headed to play basketball with Tony and his friends. It took forever to get there but it was so worth it. The rim had to have been shorter because I could almost dunk and somehow our rag tag American team was very successful. We ended up playing the Vietnamese Los Angeles Lakers, all matching uniforms and awesome fake LA jerseys. Tony and his friends were very excited to see us play and we all had a blast, but sweat sooo much. After an hour or so we called it quits and returned to our hotel only to hear of an amazing Irish Pub, ‘‘O’Brien’s”. Immediately Justin, Matt and I left. There we consumed the most American hamburger I had eaten in weeks. Life was good and as we ate we were giggling with joy. It was hysterical. We came back and the girls hung out with us for a bit before we all headed for bed.

Day 7

Today is the beach day and I am laying in my hotel room sick too my stomach. All of the Vietnamese food and bad decisions from previous days has finally hit me. I have been sitting on my porcelain throne for many times this morning alone. I am going to call this my sick day.

Tried to go out to a restaurant later when everyone returned but it didn't start off too successful when I left 2,000,000 dong in the ATM and it was taken when I came back. Rough day both physically and mentally, looking forward to tomorrow.

Day 6

Today we were traveling to the Mekong Delta and unfortunately due to the long drive from the Victory Hotel we had to be ready by an hour earlier. This however changed no routine regarding my favorite egg maker from the breakfast buffet. She knew we were coming and prepared a platter of breakfast eggs instead of individually cooked eggs. This was awesome. And to top it off my debit card finally worked and I could once again become a millionaire in Vietnam.

Once the troops gathered we packed into our van for the longest trip of our entire trip estimating a total of two hours one way. The guys figured we would finally blog and take advantage of this time, I however was incapable of being productive and pushed it off until now.

For the duration of the trip my stomach began to fight back all the Vietnamese Food Culture I was taking on through the course of the week. Then on our own rest stop I decided trying fresh coconut milk, which down the road was a bad decision. It had a very mild taste and after I finished trying to gulp down the coconut Kien had the coconut cut in half so I could try the inner shell. This gelatin textured inside actually tasted nothing like coconut I imagined and was quite surprising.

We left that rest stop and traveled through our previous site visit of Phu My Hung. Crossing over the very large longest bridge in Vietnam we had arrived at the Vinacaca® coco drying facility. There we saw the coco plant in its most basic stage as a pod of many varying colors from red, orange, yellow and green. The tour guide showed us the stages in making chocolate out of the coco plant. The first stage was cracking the multicolored shell and revealing the slimy looking coco beans starting out initially white. They taste horrible at this point, very bitter and just overall nasty. After the coco beans are removed they are laid out in bulk on burlap rugs to dry then put in the back of the warehouse to ferment. Once the fermenting process finishes the beans retain a darker brown color still tasting bitter but actually resembling a chocolate esk taste. It’s crazy thinking that someone just thought to dry this coco bean and make chocolate out of it. When the tour of the of aroma filled warehouse ended they gave us an informative presentation and then we were on our way to lunch.

The lunch happened to be located on some random side road but held a hidden oasis of ponds, palm trees, fruits, hammocks and finally a restroom. From an engineering perspective all the man made ponds containing hundreds of coy and various aquaculture was remarkable. The lunch was the typical Vietnamese rice, chicken, and unknown meat referred to as ‘beef’ by the locals. That generally has no significance, as it could be rabbit, squirrel, dog, cat, wolf, bear, tiger, lions, or whatever you could imagine. After lunch we were on our way to the coco production plant where they determined ripe coco beans through hand inspection. They are able to identify good and bad beans based off of pictures provided.

Next they took us to their taste testing facility and gave a presentation in Vietnamese where Mr.Tin attempted to translate. This definitely felt like a lost in translation moment because for full Vietnamese paragraphs he mentioned 2 or 3 words. The process of taste tasting was brutal. My initial assumption of the chocolate taste was much sweeter and scrumptious. However I was proven entirely wrong as the 4-5 samples ranged from sour and bitter, bitter as hell or sour as hell. This in the long run was also a bad decision for my current stomach status.

Next we visited the coco farm. Driving back from the coco plant we took a random series of streets and pulled over alongside what appeared to be the tropics. We turned and saw a single path that lead deep into the tropical forests. Along this path, lined with palm trees and waterways, shallow rivers outlined it. The rivers were filled with various coconuts, plants and aquaculture. As we walked we finally saw the coco trees and the coco plant. The farmers live all along the path so they can harvest daily and easily. It was quite a spectacular environment having all kinds of animals and insects. There were tons of fire ants and a few students got bit. I fortunately only had to use the bathroom and I didn’t get eaten. This however was an adventure of it’s own.

Since I had been having stomach problems I was hoping there might possibly be running water and a toilet. That however was an unrealistic hope considering there was absolutely no running water. Instead my first location was a concrete floor enclosed by a wall, I then asked where the hole or toilet was and the locals laughed uncontrollably. I then followed Kien and the farmer to a concrete deck that lead into the middle of a pond with fish visibly swimming in. You can generally put together what I had to do next, and yes this was a first.

On our agenda after the tour of the coco farms we headed to the bus but made another bad decision in trying the local sugarcane juice. They take bamboo and crush it through a machine and drain the juices into a bag with ice and sell it for 25 cents ≈ 5000 dong. This tastes good but doesn’t go through the system easily. For the next two hours as my stomach swirled round and round as the bus traveled back home, well the Hotel. It was unanimous that all of us were ready for some American food and we thought what better place to eat than KFC.

As group we were so dedicated to this we immediately went there after we were dropped off. Rushing to the KFC we ordered the chicken popcorn and awaited our meal. Inhaling the Vietnamese style KFC with all the greases and juices oozing down our throats we were not ready for the continued stomach problems afterwards. When we waddled back to the hotel I think Matt and Mike both upchucked and I wish I had. With the duration of the day we all passed out in attempt to recover some energy before the guys went out with Tony to a Vietnamese Alternative-Rock Bar. The place we went to was at the base of a Hotel called Huong Long. There we listened to American Music song perfectly by a Vietnamese female vocalist. It was an amazing time and Andrew played drums during for about 5 songs. What a great night.

Day 5

Today was an overall relaxing day, being Friday and such. The morning breakfast as typical at the hotel, and the bus ride all seem routine by now. Fortunately though instead of BC, Business Casual, we got to bust out those ties and look real nice. I packed about five ties unnecessarily so I was more than relived to wear one.

The drive to Intel was typical as well overall 45-60 minutes long but this time the final destination was quite remote. Intel’s 1 Billion dollar investment into this pre-fabrication factory was surrounded with gates and protection as most large businesses in Vietnam. After the photo shoot we went to tour their current up and running facility. Before entering this 900,000 sq ft facility there were 15 stations outside for workers to clean their hands before going to work.

Once behind the doors we walked down a long hallway with no windows then turn a left. This lead to another hallway but this time inside windows revealing 1 pre-fabrication station and about 875,000 sq ft of empty space. It was like Willy-Wonka’s factory as there were random staff wearing rubber suites moping and cleaning random locations in the hall ways and in the glassed off never ending building.

After this factory tour we were taken through the enormous office building with hundreds of empty desks, leaving a very creepy vibe. There was eventually a hallway where Intel has rooms labeled for staff to do the label. They ranged from “Chill-out”, “Play”, “Nibble” and “Work Out”. It seemed like this would be a fun place to work once people occupied the vacany. We finally entered a conference room labeled “Meet”.

In this room we were greeted by Rick Howarth, Intel’s Vietnam General Manager. He presented a very in depth power point touching base on why Vietnam had such an expensive investment from Intel and Intel’s company in general. This factory was created during the condensing of 3 other such factories located in South-East Asia. The main reasons he emphasized were the massive possible market in Ho Chi Minh City where 65 percent of all the population is under 30; there are 86 million people where only 10 percent have computers and as the economy grows this will skyrocket; surrounding countries have huge growth potential (Laos, Cambodia and Thailand); labor costs are so insignificant currently; stable political system compared to other surround nations; and lastly company policy states no more than 40% of revenue can come one country so Vietnam has open potential.

With all these reasons there have been drawbacks as hiring experienced workers has been very difficult since Intel is one of the first technical businesses in Vietnam. There is also, as many companies have complained, a high turnover so training employees and then losing about 20-30 percent of staff has been delaying expansion. This problem carried over to the construction of the building that normally takes 6 months. It took 2 years as the majority of construction workers received their yearly pay check and then returned to their families during the Vietnamese holiday every January.

One very interesting thing Rick said was on the first day the workers showed up with no helmets flip flops. This strongly violated Intel’s safety policy so these construction workers also had to be trained to become suitable for the valuable construction project. Training workers and losing them to the Holiday contributed greatly to the loss of productivity on initial construction.

Once Intel completed the construction in Vietnam they began to bring in about 120 million dollars in first years revenue. However this site is expected to bring in 15 to 30 billion dollars in revenue per year in about 5 years, once completed filled with proper equipment and about 4000 employees. This is exciting for Intel as they are no longer considered a growth company in the Stock Market. They obviously hope that this will help double their gross income from 40 billion to 80 billion.

After the extensive meeting, which we attended with a few of the University of Economics and Finance, we headed back to the hotel to eat at the buffet. Since my stomach has been acting up I found relief in seeing they had, what looked like a self –service ice cream machine. Once I had perfectly assembled my ice cream cone I tried the magenta pink looking substance. The first taste that popped into my head was the gelatin looking ice cream from Chincoteague Beach when I was little. Essentially it was delicious and very settling when added to the Snakehead fish and Silkworms I inhaled.

Next on our agenda was meeting Ngyugen Ngoc Anh, Monitoring and Evaluation Corridor of ACDI/Voca and Dinh Hai Lam of Success Alliance. The location was extremely close to our hotel so we walked to couple of blocks in the sweltering heat to find an air-conditioned room. There we all slowly, unintentionally, began to settle in and enter a state of delirium. Regardless of how tired we were Ngyugen Ngoc Anh and Dinh Hai Lam put together a great presentation of the Mekong Delta and briefed us before our day trip the following day.

In their presentation they talked about the process of producing coco from the coco farms located in the Mekong delta. The process went from growing in the fields, picking, drying the plants, drying the coco beans from inside the plant in the sun for 3 days, and finally

They talked about Vietnam being one of the largest producers of coco in the world and working directly with Mars company (M&Ms) for their production of chocolate. Also they discussed the United States Agency International Development (USAID) and World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) involvement for training Vietnamese farmers on how to produce Coco Plants and harvest them properly. This helps bring income to the lower class farmers, as growing Coco is the most valuable item, about 1.50 USD per pod.

After this presentation a few of us headed back to take naps while Mike Tirone and I when to the Ban Taun Market to get some more tourist shopping done. There he bought bargained for a helicopter while I bargained for an assortment of small items for friends and family. On our way back to the hotel we finally found the jersey shops of every soccer team imaginable. I had to get a Vietnam Jersey regardless of my lack there of appeal of the game itself.

Once we returned the guys set up plans to meet with Tony and his friends for an authentic Vietnamese Dinner. There we met all of the extremely friendly and excited Vietnamese UEF students that encourage us to try all kinds of new foods. We ate chicken blood, shrimp, pork, beef, and another unidentified meat. As usual the cuisine here always keeps you guessing. After the scrumptious meal, surprisingly, we went to the Vietnamese Ice Cream store very comparable to the US Cold Stone. There all the guys Mike, Matt, Justin and I shared 5 ice cream entrees with the 15 UEF students. I had such an amazing time talking and socializing with everyone, this was an unforgettable night.

Day 4

Today woke up a little off time for breakfast so grabbed some bread to go on our way to the University of Economics and Finance. At UEF we had Le Quang Minh, Vice-President of VNU-Ho Chi Minh City, present about Rural Planning and Development: The Mekong Delta. He had just returned from the United States and spoke very well. There I met Kien, another UEF student, who was going to the beach with us Sunday. He spoke very good English as well and he added side comments to the presentation helping me understand more thoroughly the different aspects of the Mekong Delta from the coco plants to the aquaculture. During this presentation the local news station came and recorded us. They interviewed two students from both University of Pittsburgh and University of Economics and Finance.

Following the presentation we had a photo shoot with the other Vietnamese students. They always love taking pictures with us. They always do peace signs, which apparently mean Victory, and thumbs up, which means number one. We also tried some Vietnamese Ice Cream. The cookies and cream I selected tasted like candy corn, very odd for being called cookies and cream. We then had our first Vietnamese Culture Class. This was presented by a Vietnamese Harvard Graduate who spoke very good English. He talked about the Vietnamese Culture being a love based and not realistic based like China or Korea. He discussed not thanking directing in Vietnam but instead complimenting. Also he told us there are no such things as too personal of questions. Most Vietnamese will ask anything about your age, your relationship, and just about anything you can think of. Ultimately as long as they don’t lose ‘face’, essentially respect, Vietnamese people will ask anything. Another interesting thing was in Vietnam the order of importance goes God then Wife where in the US it’s God, Children, Spouse, then Self.

After Culture Class we had lunch at the can tin again. There we were reluctant to consume this mystery meat that smelt and tasted like dog food. I can only put one and two together to figure it out. There have been though the most amazing fruit dishes so I feasted on that. We had to go back to the hotel to change into Business attire for our scheduled meeting. Our meeting was at another US Consulate building. Before our meeting we stopped by the French Bakery downstairs where I had a real chocolate croissant instead of the ones I get from Panera. It was phenomenal and excellent at filling my partially empty stomach. Also we got to test 3D-HDTV, it was basically a home IMAX and the possibly the coolest thing ever. I can only hope I get one.

For this meeting we were then placed in a room with a great view of Ho Chi Minh City. Professor Berman told us how none of the tall buildings we saw were there 10 years ago. It’s amazing how far Vietnam has come in just 10 years expanding and building. The presentation was by Jennifer Ludders, Economic Officer, and Dave Averne, Commercial Officer. Jennifer, as the Economic Officer, deals with a lot of issues including GDP production, the environment, ethics, etc. Dave, as the Commerical Officer, works with American Businesses and helps establish sale in Vietnam if a certain product has a significant market for. As for the Economics I can only imagine how interesting of a country Vietnam is to study. Expected to be the 17^th largest economy by 2025 it is remarkable their overall expansion. A few interesting facts were the average salary in Vietnam is around 1,200 USD, extremely low however Dave mentioned that within the city it is closer to 15,000 USD. Also Vietnamese don’t trust banks so that explains why a lot of stores here are specifically safe stores. A lot of wealthier Vietnamese invest in gold as it is the most stable form of currency. Lastly the most interesting thing is that material possessions are generally overlooked because the majority of people rather be able to support their family.

After this meeting the skies opened up and our initial plan to go back to the market Bhaun Ton Market seemed to be over. However, as adventurous as we are unaware of the rains in Vietnam, we headed out against better judgment. By the Time we arrived at the market, still pouring cats and dogs, we were soaked thoroughly into our undergarments. We did get to the market so no time was wasted complaining about being wet. There I finally replaced my suit case for 1/5 the original price of my old one; got 11 seasons a HBO and a Showtime series; and acquired some tasteful t-shirts.

The system in Vietnam is entirely bartering so you approach any vendor they will try to sell you anything they can with the little English they know, such as “You want”, “Good on you”, “Please sir”, and other guilt provoking tactics. Then if you do engage, they will proceed to give you a way over priced number. Now the fact that the overpriced number is equivalent to anywhere between 5 – 15 US dollars is regardless of the actual cost of the product. The name of the game is bargaining and it is surprising how low they will go from their initial offers. My generally rule of thumb has been to cut the number they offer in dong in half. For instance the movies initially they said “For you sir I cut you a deal 500,000 Dong”, sounds hilarious but their monetary system is 19,000 Dong = 1 USD. Afterwards they hand you their old school calculator and expect you to type in your price, so in this case 250,000. Next they complain sayings ranging from “You’re too cheap please sir”, “I need you to work with me”, “Please sir be reasonable”. Then they will drop to like 490,000 then 470,000 continually saying they’re cutting you a deal. And then every time I and handed the calculator I reenter the number, sometimes alluding to me possibly changing my mind. After about three times they refuse saying “Be reasonable”. I follow this by walking about towards another vendor and they have been 4 for 4 to call you back and take your offer.

After bargaining for all my gifts we headed back to the hotel and changed from our rain soaked clothing. We were going to Nam Phan a restaurant down the street from our Hotel for dinner. Unannounced to us, we wearing very informal attire, it was an upscale restaurant so we felt entirely out of place. Despite this the food was amazing and all very inexpensive. I ordered the chicken stir fry and they decorated the plates so beautiful I think we all took pictures like any tourists do.

A few of us left early to catch up on some shut eye, but it turns out when I awoke 4 hours later around 11 pm everyone was on the same boat. However we were dedicated on going out to try the local club “Lush” so we attempted to rally the troops Matt and I, Matt’s my roommate and definitely a bro. This turned out to be a delayed success, but a success none the less. The late start didn’t affect us as well had a great night. Looking forward to seeing Intel tomorrow.

Day 3

Today waking up was rough, but the Vietnamese buffet was as usual a relief having sunny side eggs. I was also adventurous and tried the salted duck egg and the name certainly was not off. It was beyond salty but surprisingly tasty. The first site visit we were headed to was the Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park J.V. Co. Ltd. This park was roughly forty-five minutes to an hour away taking us through the narrow mangled streets.

Once we arrived we were introduced to the Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park by Vu Quang Vinh their Marketing Manager. He described overall the company’s job owning land and renting their factories to a wide variety of products. They manufactured candies, car parts, various gears, and pharmaceutical goods. Within Industrial Park the leases for each factory is nationally 50 years long. The benefits of having your product manufactured in VISP is they will export it to all locations and even have their own internationally approved inspection site on hand.

After this presentation they served us a phenomnial part 2 of breakfast. This varied from flan, tuna bruschetta, Hawaiian pizza, strawberry short cake and authentic Vietnamese Coffee. Next John Nguyen, Director of II-VI presented. II-VI is a Pittsburgh based business that is producing Optical Lenses and Thermal chips for car warmers, refrigerators and anything requiring thermal readings. John left Vietnam 4 days before the unification of the north and south. Afterwards he worked at a full service gas station and paid for his education, he eventually married moved to Allentown. There he traveled to Pittsburgh created II-VI and returned to Vietnam to help production.

We next were sent on a tour of II-VI’s Industrial Park Plant. There they showed both the optical lens and the thermal chips they produce. The group split into two as we both looked at the different production lines. First we saw the Thermal chips production for all types of thermal reading areas. To create these chips they took aluminum rods, then through multiple steps of electrolysis, they plate them with gold. Next we saw the optical lens factory. As the glass slowly becomes more optically precise the factory rooms require less light disturbance and dust. To accomplish this II-VI separates workers with concealing different rooms and having darker paint to reduce ambient lighting. Finally to help II-VI to create lens with almost no optical reflection, 98 percent, they use a laser beam to remove any infractions.

After the tour they told us of some business issues they have been dealing with working in Vietnam. Since VISP houses many companies the competition for workers is a constant struggle. For the optical lens factory it takes about 6 months of training for certain positions. Since the turnover rate in Vietnam is about 18 percent at the end of each year, losing valuably trained workers has been a continual problem for II-VI. To counter this they have remained paying at the 75^th pay scale and providing bonuses.

After this site visit we went to a restaurant ‘Monaca’. There I tried the Vietnamese pancake that is a deep friend omlet with seafood inside. It was an interesting taste, similar to that of a potato chip, with very different textures.

The restaurant was located directly next to Glass Egg Digital media, our last stop of the day. At Glass Egg they help create video graphics for games produced internationally. They are well known for their Car Graphics but have been trying to work past that stereotype by creating backgrounds and eventually creating their own online video game. Unfortunately this presentation was probably the least favored as neither Phil Tran, CEO, and Steve Reid, CFO, presented. The presenter seemed to be in a rush or rather didn’t care to elaborate on any of our Q and A.

Once we finished with Glass Egg we returned and everyone passed out having jet lag catch up to them. I was however woken up with previously set plans to go out with Tony to try out some Vietnamese dishes. Since most of the crew was sleeping it was three of us that left to eat out at ‘Hai Anh’. There we had the Vietnamese version of Spaghetti and liver, yet again delicious with odd textures. It was an awesome time as the majority of Tony’s friends attending UEF speak relatively good English and is always interesting interacting with them. Following dinner we went to the Diamond Center Plaza for ‘Ca Phe’. Located on the sidewalk we sat on playhouse size chairs among the masses of Vietnamese drinking coffee and socializing. Today was a great day despite the rough start. I am thoroughly looking forward to hanging out with Tony on Friday and immersing myself in the Vietnamese culture.