Boat People, Greasy American Food, and the Starlight Bridge

This morning we had both a language and a culture class. In the culture class, we were taught the primary beliefs of the Vietnamese culture. The concept and of yin and yang was explained to us. I thought it was interesting how they assigned yin and yang to many different things; like numbers and directions for example. Language class was once again awesome. We are starting to be able to hold conversations in Vietnamese. We can now say how are you doing, describe how you’re feeling, and a bunch of other greetings. I think I’m starting to get the hang of the different tones although there are some consonants that I cannot get (ng).

After a quick lunch, we headed to Ascenx Technology. Ascenx is a small company formed by Tung Bach. Tung’s story is pretty incredible. He is one of the famous boat people of Vietnam. He fled the country after the end of the Vietnam War. Many of his uncles were hanged for the involvement in the war. His father died on a boat also attempting to escape the country. After earning a computer engineering degree from Cal Poly (very impressive) he returned to Vietnam and began this company. Although it is not quite at the point that he wants it to be at, it has risen quickly and is continuing to grow. I was very interested in how he started his company as I am also interested in starting and managing my own engineering firm.

Later in the afternoon, our UEF friends decided to take us to Domino‘s Pizza. I could not wait because normally I am a huge Domino’s fan. I ordered a large sized Hawaiian style pie with Nino. I could not even finish half of it and afterwards my stomach was killing me. It’s ironic that the food that got me sick was the American food that I have been eating my entire life. I guess my stomach had already become accustomed to fresh, non-greasy Vietnamese food. Then we decided to explore more of South Saigon. We went to the Crescent Mall and the Starlight Bridge. The area that we were in was so much nicer than most of the places I’ve been in the United States. My told me that the Starlight Bridge was a popular place for Vietnamese couples. The Starlight Bridge is bridge in the Crescent area that lights up. It’s pretty cool. We took a ton of pictures and probably made complete fools out of ourselves. After a pretty eventful day, we were all exhausted and I was so ready to go to bed.