Last night was such a great time. We went to dinner and tried street food, sticky rice with chicken. Street vendor challenge: accepted and complete. The food was delicious, more so I would say than some of the restaurants we have tried here. I felt like I was really experiencing Vietnamese culture. Some Westerners even walked by while we were sitting there, and they gave us a funny look.
After, we went to New York Dessert Company for more food! This was a polar opposite experience. The menu was completely in English, and the food was clearly all American. I had some garlic bread and cheesecake and was stuffed afterward. We had to walk that off, so we ended up going to the mall nearby just to check it out for a bit. It was actually pretty pricey there, but maybe that’s because it was mainly all upscale stores like Aldo Shoes, Armani, and more.
We took a taxi home, and then we went straight to Lush. Immediately when we arrived, we were taken to a table and couch upstairs. It was overall a good time.
After an early rise this morning, we had two companies to see throughout the day. We started at Saigon Newport International, an inland port owned and maintained by the Navy. It was really interesting to see the complexity of the port and how such a complex system was manipulated—takes some impressive industrial engineering skills. We got to see the control room with incoming shipments, exports, and a record of trucks that were currently in the port. It reminded me of a scene straight out of the movie “Contraband.”
Afterward, we all ate lunch at UEF and had some time to hang out there. The majority of us remained in the canteen. I took a short nap here and then on the bus later in the day; everyone including myself seemed really tired today. We did, however, have another company visit at two that we had to be ready for.
We drove on over from UEF to an industrial (software) park known as QTSC. This company visit seemed to be a bit less organized, but after a short presentation we walked around the property a bit to get our bearings. It was a lot like Phu My Hung in that it also had a school (even a University), apartments, and more. It was interesting to see a group practicing Kung Fu back behind the school.
A visit to TMA solutions, a software outsourcing company located within QTSC, ended our company visit for the day. To begin the tour, we got to see the development rooms where applications and more for Apple, Android, and more are currently being developed. This was cool because we could see the screens of the programmers. I was proud to have recognized code such as C++ and general loops and if statements, so I now feel that my work in Engineering Analysis last semester has been more worthwhile than I had expected. The vice-president of the company spoke with us shortly afterward, giving a short presentation and then answering our questions. He was a good guy. From this part of the visit, I was able to recognize certain patterns from every company we visited regarding treatment of workers, worker productivity, and more.
After a long bus ride home from QTSC, we were in for a great rest of the day (hence why I am blogging later than usual today). In the rain, Elliot, Tim, Ricky, Nino, Kathy, and I made our way to the store/ATM and eventually to KFC, as some of us were craving American food. Bad decision because there was a lot of food left to be had tonight.
The UEF students took us to a street vendor for Vietnamese ice cream. It was absolutely delicious: vanilla ice cream with peanuts and fruit. The best part was the fact that it only cost us about fifty cents each.
It had been raining kind of hard, but that had stopped, and I took a taxi over to the Hot Pot. It was really, really fun. The concept was similar to Benihauna, as your food cooks in front of you. There was one difference: we cooked our own food. We were given a broth as the ingredients circled around the tables on a conveyer belt to be cooked. A great experience, though I don’t know if food codes would let that fly back home.
We got home around 10 PM. I’m getting ready for bed soon, though. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow. On the bus at 7AM (thanks, Tran).
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