It’s our last day in Vietnam. I can’t believe how quickly the time has passed… I do not want it to end at all. I have seen and done some incredible things and I have made friends that I will have forever. These two weeks have been some of the best weeks of my life. 

We start off the day with a presentation about the trade between Vietnam and Pennsylvania. It was interesting to see just how involved and connected the countries have become this quickly after the war. I was very intrigued by this presentation but all that was on my mind was the upcoming language class and cumulative test. After the presentation was over, I continued to practice my pronunciations and learn and memorize all the words and phrases I had learned. Our UEF friends joined us in the class and helped us to make sure that we would do well on the test. After I finally felt comfortable and had basically memorized everything I needed to, it was time to get up in front of the class and speak. I was partnered with Alex and we were instructed to have a conversation asking each other our names, how we were doing, what we did last night, and where we went last night. I thought it went very smoothly. Next, I had to talk about myself and give information about myself in Vietnamese. It was going very well until I stumbled and forgot a word. I couldn’t think of it so I had to sneak a peek back at the board. I guess that was my only mistake because my teacher gave me a 9 out of 10. We took pictures with our teacher and the whole class. It was all starting to hit me that we wouldn’t be coming back. I did not like it. We had lunch at the UEF canteen for the last time. I no longer needed instruction on how to eat with chopsticks, including rice! I absolutely plan on using chopsticks when I get home too. After lunch, we drove to the soccer field for the UEF-Pitt game. We were very excited and hoped that all of our hard work and long training sessions would pay off (actually just a few minutes on the beach in Vung Tau). It was so hot. I don’t think I have ever played in heat and humidity like that. I was dripping sweat less than five minutes after starting. The sidelines were packed with UEF kids looking to cheer both teams on. I made sure that our UEF friends were ready to cheer loudly for us. My promised me that if she didn’t play she would be chanting “TIM TIM TIM” from the sideline. The game was very fun. The teams were pretty evenly matched. In the end, we won 3 – 2! It was an excellent team effort from Team #YOLO. Once the game was finished we continued the festivities with some more games. First was a potato sack race. We had to pair up one girl and one guy, one UEF kid and one Pitt kid. I paired up with My, we were definitely the clear-cut favorites going into the competition! In the first heat we took second place after a hard-fought race. I started off and had us tied for third and then My took over and hopped herself into second place! This meant that we would race in the finals. The final heat did not go as well as we had hoped but it still provided plenty of laughs. Before My could finish she tripped while she was hopping. After the potato sack race, where Tam and Alex brought home the gold, we had yet another dance off. The Vietnamese surely like to dance, but I am not complaining because I love to dance too! We set up in three lines and followed as a few of the UEF kids showed us how to do a traditional yet modern Vietnamese dance. It was extremely hard to follow but very fun. Once the festivities had ended, we exchanged even more gifts. My and I won a duck for our fourth place finish in the potato sack race. Even as I sit on the plane, the duck reminds me of all of the fun times we had with our Vietnamese friends. I’m also finding that this journal is becoming increasingly more difficult to write. It’s really upsetting me to think that I won’t wake up in the morning in the Victory Hotel with a whole day of classes, business presentations, and hanging with the UEF kids.

When we got to the hotel, we all showered and a group of us headed to the co-op one last time. I bought my last bun… these buns were delicious. After a quick stop at KFC it was back to the hotel to start packing and then get ready for our farewell dinner. Just as we were about to gather in the lobby for the dinner, we discovered that all of our flights had changed drastically. The flight from Hong Kong to Chicago had been delayed meaning that we would be unable to catch our flight from Chicago to Pittsburgh (or Newark in my case). We all freaked out. Some of us were going from Hong Kong to Newark. Others from Hong Kong to Tokyo to Newark. And even some were going from Hong Kong to San Francisco to Denver to Pittsburgh. The whole thing was extremely screwed up. We had to stop thinking about it and enjoy our last night here because there was nothing we could do until we got to the airport. The dinner on the boat was beautiful. It had an open deck that was light up and had tables and chairs set up on it. We headed towards a large table towards the front of the boat. Equipped with dramamede I felt prepared to enjoy this farewell dinner. The food was great! And although most of it was seafood which is not my favorite thing in the world, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was the last time I would have true Vietnamese food. The dinner was bittersweet though. After we had finished we had to say good bye to the incredible people in UEF that made this whole trip a huge success. It was the beginning of many more goodbyes. Did I mention that I hate good byes? Back at the hotel, the UEF kids were waiting for us. They are truly some of the nicest people I have ever met. They agreed to stay with us until we took off, some of them even driving to the airport to see us off. We hung out in our hotel rooms for the night. It felt like we had known them for our whole lives, we all got along so well. Once again, showing just how unbelievably nice they were, each of them had gotten all of us gifts so we would never forget our time in Vietnam. I will now be reminded of each of them wherever I go because of the many things they so graciously got for us. As it got closer to our time to leave, I had to try harder and harder to not think about the goodbyes I would have to say. I talked with My for awhile. We exchanged emails and I promised her I would message her and email her as much as I could. She wants to come to Pittsburgh in July through UEF. I really hope she can so I can see her again (before next summer when I get an internship at a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City!). None of the other UEF kids can go though which really sucks. The time had finally arrived. The group of Vietnamese kids drove their motorbikes to the airport while I packed up some of my last belongings. As we were walking out of room 326, Eric and I said a small goodbye to our home for the past two weeks. Once at the airport, the emotions really hit me. Alex was the first one to start crying and once he started I knew I was done for. These last few goodbyes were some of the toughest things I had to do. I said good bye to Tam and Dang and Nang and Tuan and all of others that accompanied us to the airport. I could not even express in words how grateful I was for everything every single one of them had done with us.  I said goodbye to My last. This one was the hardest because I had gotten so close to her over the last two weeks. I did not think it was possible to get to know someone so well in such a short period of time especially with a pretty significant language barrier. But it happened with My and I. I told all of them that there was no way I was not going to come back. I am determined to get that internship with the hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, but if not I would do everything in my power to find a place to volunteer or even shadow next summer. My last, last goodbye was for Tran. Our savior and guide on the trip. Not only did she help us navigate and survive the hustle and bustle of Ho Chi Minh but she became a great friend too. It was just as hard saying goodbye to her as it was saying goodbye to the others. Walking away from every single one of them really hurt and I struggled checking in my luggage and going through customs and security. Surprisingly they did not charge me for an overweight bag even though I was 2 kg overweight. The flight from Ho Chi Minh to Hong Kong went smoothly. But now Team #YOLO had to split up. Although it was not nearly as sad as saying good bye to our Vietnamese friends because we would see everyone the next three years possibly more, it was sad parting with the best Plus3 group out there. Brice, Hailee, Huyen, and I rushed to our gate and boarded almost immediately. Although the rest of them have more flights left, I have on direct flight left to Newark, New Jersey. For a brief second I was super excited to go home and see my family and friends but then I remembered what I was leaving behind and it quickly disappeared. Don’t get me wrong, I really missed everyone back home but Vietnam was an incredible experience that I will never forget.  

As if I have not been sappy enough, I have more to add. But before I begin, I just want to take this time to recognize and thank someone for their help throughout the trip. Our trusty program assistant, mother, commander, chairman, and new friend Brice. Without his help I’m not so sure some of us would have made it. From “finding” life-saving medication to his guidance and support, without him this trip would not have been possible. Cam On (Thank You) Brice! Now for the waterworks… I wrote this while sitting on the plane and I can pretty much say I have been crying pretty consistently through it all. I know I probably have said this a million times and you may even be getting sick of me saying this, but it is IMPOSSIBLE to even put it into words the things that the UEF students did for us. I think it is safe to say that the Vietnamese kids we met and befriended have become more than just our friends, they really are like family now. So I guess this is it. My last journal entry. I hope you have enjoyed experiencing my Vietnamese journey alongside me. I apologize for not keeping up but as you read my entries I’m sure you’ll understand just how busy I have been. Alright well as they say in Vietnam, XIN CIAO HEN GAP LAI! Good bye and see you later! 

Cu Chi, Tay Ninh, and Bargain Hunting

Today was an early start. We were day tripping to the Cu Chi tunnels and the Cao Dai temple in Tay Ninh. The Cu Chi tunnels were really amazing. Although once again having to deal with listening to the Vietnamese side of the story, they were very fascinating. We started off by each of us climbing into a tiny hole in the ground. Once the top was covered with leaves you became invisible, it was like you were never even there. We walked through the jungle where American soldiers had clashed with the Vietcong. Our guide showed us the huge network of tunnels that allowed the Vietcong to not only survive but to defeat the Americans. We were allowed to walk down into a tunnel. I could never have stayed down there for long periods at a time like the Vietcong did. It was very small and there was only enough room to crouch. We made it to the next entry/exit point. A group of us thought it was too cool that we had to try it again. Our guide showed us another tunnel that we could walk down. This time the journey through the tunnels was longer and the tunnel got to a point at times where it was too narrow and too short to fit through without going sideways and crawling. Dr. Berman and our guide told us about many of the stories that occurred here. It was pretty cool being at a place that held so much history.

Next up was another long bus ride to Tay Ninh. Tay Ninh is the Vatican of the Cao Dai religion. It is the headquarters and origin of this small, historic religion. The temple was amazing but at the same time slightly disconcerting. It’s hard to describe in words. There was plenty of colors and figures everywhere. The large hall had an eerie feel to it. At the end of the hall was an altar to which the worshipers of Caodaiism prayed. The top of the altar featured the all-seeing eye. The picture of the eye just added to the strange overall feeling the temple gave off. We stayed to watch as the monks (I’m not sure exactly what to call them) began their daily worship. It just added to the eeriness of the place. They all lined up on the ground and would bow their heads every time a gong went off. It was a very cool thing to watch. We left Tay Ninh and stopped for lunch at a place to eat on the side of the road. It was a bit sketchy but it turns out the food was pretty good.

After getting back to the hotel around 3:15, the UEF kids took us to Ben Thanh again to test our bargaining skills. I was eager to bargain as I had not bought much our first time there. While I was buying a souvenir for my sister, I was attempting to get the price to 40,000 VND. But the lady would not budge. As I was walking away she made the final price 50,000 VND. I thought I could get it somewhere else for 40,000 VND so I continued walking away. As I left her shop she yelled to me “Save your 40,000 VND so you can buy incense when you die!” Apparently I really angered here LOL. I found the same souvenir at another place and tried to get it down to 40,000 VND but it was hopeless so I took it for 50,000 VND after all. I bought another item from the store in a pretty good deal after a lot of hassling and bargaining. The lady there told me I was very good at bargaining and when I took out my wallet to buy the souvenir she noticed that I had a lot of dong and asked why I bargained so much if I had so much money. I finished my shopping at Ben Thanh and headed to the main entrance to meet up with the rest of the group. We could not fit into one taxi so I just waited for My to come and pick me up. Tuan then planned to take us to a t-shirt store that sold shirts with funny sayings in Vietnamese on them. But on the way My and I fell behind and got lost. We finally made it to the store. The shirts in the store were funny. The one a few of us bought said “Not drunk, Not going home” In Vietnamese. We then walked to a European restaurant. On the way we had to cross a few streets. Crossing the streets was very challenging in Vietnam with all the hundreds of motorbikes and cars. Crossing a street in NYC is almost comparable to crossing one in Vietnam, but not quite. I thought I could do it pretty well so I decided to go solo on one of my crosses. This almost ended disastrously as I had to hurry forward to get out of the way of one bike while stopping myself from walking into another one. They nearly sandwiched me but I made it out okay! At this dinner, I was looking to try something different. I asked My about a bunch of the foods on the menu. One of the more interesting was ostrich wing, which My said was very good. But I could not bring myself to order an ostrich so I stuck with a simple plate of pasta. This dinner we refused to let any of the UEF kids pay. They had done enough for us already. We got home early and a few of us wanted to go to Lush, the club run by Glass Egg Digital Media. I wasn’t very interested in going out as I felt the trip coming to an end. I just wanted to hang out with some of the people staying back, write this blog, and talk to My, Tam, and Tuan. But I ended up going out because I figured it would be the last time that I could go to a club and order drinks for a while. Lush wasn’t anything special and I left early. I was still trying to avoid thinking about our upcoming departure. I did not want to think about having to leave Vietnam and all of my new friends. 

Communism finally, Last Company Visit, and Conveyor Belt Food

Company visits on company visits on company visits. We started off at Saigon Newport Corporation. SNP is the largest port in Vietnam and is responsible for almost 80% of Vietnam's exports and imports. There is no port of that size and magnitude in the United States! But the most interesting part was that SNP is government owned and managed. It is run by the Vietnamese Navy. This means that the government controls 80% of what Vietnamese imports and exports. I could only imagine what would happen if the United States government attempted to do that. This is one of the very few instances where I noticed the communism state of the nation. Like the U.S. consulate said, the Vietnamese are not very good at being communist. While we were there, we were shown the control room. From the control room you pretty much had a view of the whole port... it was very big. Next we were taken on a tour and shown how large the port truly is.

After a quick lunch at the UEF canteen, we headed to the Quang Trung Software City. QTSC is similar to VSIP except it's specifically built for software companies. I was not very impressed by QTSC. VSIP was much more organized and better put together. QTSC also gave me the impression that it was relatively empty. After a quick tour of QTSC we drove to TMA Solutions. TMA Solutions is a software outsourcing company that provides research and products to larger technology companies. One of the many projects they are working on is an upgrade of the Android iOs. The list of companies they service is very impressive and include some of the biggest techonology companies in the world. Once the visit at TMA Solutions was over, I realized that it was our last company visit. Our adventure in Vietnam was almost over... I don't want this to end!

Tonight, we went to another street vendor. This time we had Vietnamese ice cream. It tasted very good! It was very similar to American ice cream but I am positive that it is a lot more healthy than the ice cream I have here. In the ice cream there were parts of Chom Chom, my favorite Vietnamese fruit. It was very delicious. In the street vendor place, we finally got to sit in the tiny plastic chairs that everyone is always chilling on! I had been waiting for this moment for so long... I had almost reached complete Vietnamese chill status. Then we went to get dinner at Kichi Kichi, which is a Hot Pot restaurant. At Kichi Kichi, you order a spiced broth that you want. They bring you the broth in a pot and you put it over a hot stove. As the broth is brough to a broil you take plates off of a conveyor belt that is moving in front of you. On the plates there are a ton of different things. There is ham, bacon, pork, beef, crab, fish, prawns, squid, noodles, and tons of different vegetables. Some of the things were very unsettling... I thought at first that the prawns were alive. I could not eat something where I could look into its eyes. But My seemed to love the prawn... I was very impressed even though it was probably delicious. In my pot, I put crab, ham, pork, and tons of noodles. It was very good! Although I thought the restaurant was a brilliant idea, it would never have passed regulations in the US. Having raw food moving around on an open conveyor belt would not be considered sanitary. After a jam-packed day, it was back to the Victory Hotel for a short night's sleep.

Video Games, Street Vendor Challenge, and VIP status

This morning we had both culture and language class! In the culture class we learned about the many types of religions in Vietnam. I learned that there are a few different types of Buddhism and how much they actually differ from each other. It was interesting learning the specifics of a religion so unlike my own. Next was my favorite part of the day, language class! We learned common questions and answers in Vietnamese. My knowledge of the Vietnamese is getting bigger and bigger.. when I get back to Pittsburgh I want to take a class to expand it even more!

In the afternoon, we traveled to Glass Egg Media in District Four. We met with the CEO and CFO of the company. They took us up to the 17th floor and we were able to take picture of a pretty awesome view. How cool would it have been to have an office like that? Phil Tran, the CEO, was talking to us about the location. He said that District 4 did not have the greatest reputation, he compared it to the Bronx of Ho Chi Minh. He said there was a lot of corruption and a group resembling an American mob. Next they took us on a tour of their company. I couldn't help but think that this was definitely a place I wouldn't mind working. Glass Egg is responsible for video game production and design. They have provided huge video game companies with the cars, people, and environments in their games. They were also creating the code for a few games for the iPad. As we were walking around I was checking out the codes of some of the employees there. Most of them usual Microsoft Visual Studios... I guess we actually do use some of the stuff we learn! Similar to Tung Bach of Ascenx Technologies, Phil Tran was also a refugee during the Vietnam War. His family was forced to flee and he did not return until the embargo was lifted.

For dinner, our UEF friends took us to a "street vendor". But it was not what I was expecting. As Ho Chi Minh City has grown and modernized, street vendors have moved off the streets. We all ordered chicken and sticky rice. The food was some of the best I had all trip. Tuan also ordered me a drink that he said translates to sweet porridge. I was nervous to drink it though. It looked like an aquarium and I could have sworn there was something living in it. But when I tried it, it was delicious! It tasted like a better version of Arizona sweet tea. I'm glad I looked past the appearance to try it. After the street vendor, we went to the New York Dessert Cafe for some cheesecake. I got mango cheesecake.. it was very good. Next, some of us hung out for a bit longer at a local Vietnamese mall. Not gonna lie, I thought that this mall was nicer than most of the malls I've been to back in the US. After we said hện gặp lại to our UEF friends, we headed to Lush. Lush is owned by Glass Egg Media. Because we had talked to their CEO and CFO, they called the club manager and got us into the VIP section! It was a fun night!

cà phê sữa đá, Rack of Ribs, and Sushi!

After an exciting weekend, it was time to get back to more company visits and classes. We started off the morning by visiting VTI. Viet Thai International joint stock company owns several franchises and individual companies throughout Southeast Asia. One of their companies is Highlands coffee. The coffee there is hands down the best coffee I’ve ever had. It was delicious. It was interesting listening to them explain how they are able to manage and deal with the differences in cultures, traditions, and the societies of the Southeast Asian countries. After their presentation, and brief question and answer period, they took us to Hard Rock Café. The American food was very good and it was fun showing Tran some of our favorite foods. We had ribs, wings, onion rings, chicken fingers, and nachos. Tran really liked the honey mustard! I see where she’s coming from because I would eat honey mustard with almost everything. The food was very good and it didn’t get me sick either, which was a surprise because my stomach did not handle the American food very well. After eating we headed to the War Remnants Museum. I’d rather not talk very much about this place because it was very disturbing and unsettling. Clearly there are two sides to every story and that’s all I am going to say about it.

We met up with our Vietnamese friends for some traditional Japanese dinner. It was very good! I have never had sushi that tasty. I also tried sake, which is a Japanese wine. It was very different but I liked it. Tuan told me I should try Vietnamese wine some time. After dinner, we headed back to Snowee for some ice cream. I ordered the Oreo Peanut Cheesecake Ice Cream. I wanted to order it in Vietnamese so I asked My how to say it. But the translation ended up being so much longer than it sounds in English. It’s funny how sometimes things translate so differently. After a fun day, we all need to catch up on sleep and get ready for tomorrow!

Vung Tau, Giant Jesus, and American Food

Today we had our first day trip! Team #YOLO headed to Vung Tau. Vung Tau is a beach town southeast of Ho Chi Minh City. We took a hydrofoil to Vungtau. I did not enjoy the trip there because I have a tendency to get sea sick. Instead I caught up on missed sleep. After about an hour and a half boat ride, we arrived! The town was beautiful. If it wasn’t for the constant stream of motorbikes I would have thought I was in a tropical village somewhere in the Caribbean. The beach was so much fun. We did a lot of chilling (felt like a native Vietnamese) and played some games with everyone. We attract quite a crowd wherever we go, it’s pretty amazing. After swimming in the beautiful water for a while, we drove to a seafood restaurant. I am not a huge fan of seafood so I just ate rice. I am starting to really like rice but I don’t know if I could eat it with almost every meal like they do here.

We finished our lunch and began our trek up to a giant statue of Jesus on top of a cliff. It’s similar to the famous Jesus statue in Rio de Janeiro (I think that’s where it is). The climb up was hot and tiring but it was worth it. The view from the top was amazing. But we weren’t allowed to climb to the top of Jesus because we needed to be wearing sleeves and long pants. I picked a bad day to wear my sleeveless Vietnamese flag shirt. Speaking of my Vietnamese flag shirt, Reggie and I both wore them to the beach. We got many stares as we were walking around. It must have been strange for the locals to see white Westerners wearing Vietnam colors. It was funny watching some of the Vietnamese’s reactions to our (limited) Vietnamese vocabulary. Sometimes they were shocked that we could speak and some of the time they gave us blank stares which leads me to believe that we still have some pronunciation work to do. We made the long trek back down and got back on the boat for another miserable boat ride.

Back at the hotel we all showered up (we had gotten pretty disgustingly sweaty). Next up was dinner at the Black Cat, a taste of American food. I was a little nervous though because American food had not been agreeing with my stomach. What would normally be a small meal for me made me feel stuffed. I could not even finish the burger, my diet really has changed. After finishing off the American meal, we got a taxi and went to a bar on a rooftop. It was very chill, we are becoming more Vietnamese every day. After a relaxing and adventurous weekend we start up classes again tomorrow.

Reunification Palace... It was unbelievably hot then too.

President's living area in the palace, it was so beautiful.

Me outside of the Notre Dame Cathedral (Vietnam style)

The pagoda...

And the inside of the Pagoda

Some of the guys at the karaoke bar!

Me, My, and Kathy at King Karaoke