Wrap up

The last day of the trip was meant to be fun. We started our day by heading to the sports arena to play some soccer (football) and basketball. We got crushed in both sports, but it was very fun to watch and participate. After the games I gave some of my friends Pitt T-shirts. They absolutely loved them. I also gave the UEF basketball coach a Pitt basketball. We then took a lot of pictures with our UEF friends. After a hard goodbye we headed back to the hotel to shower and eat lunch. It turned out that a few of my closer Vietnamese friends decided to spend the rest of the day with us. Crystal, D, and Julia came up to our room to hang out, and Crystal gave us all a very nice present.

That evening Dr. Berman took us all out to eat for our farewell dinner on a boat. The food was very delicious, but it was hard to enjoy knowing that this was our last meal together. After we ate, the boat left the dock, and we got to see Ho Chi Minh in a different light. The view was spectacular.

When we got back to the hotel the tailor who made our suits was waiting for us. Mine turned out better than I could have hoped for. Everyone put theirs on, and we got a group picture.

This trip was amazing, and I met some wonderful people. This 2 week study abroad has taught me more than any 3 credit class ever could. 

Day 11

Xin Chào!

Thursday! Today is the second to lsat day in Vietnam. This is our last day at UEF... ever. We start off with our last culture class, and then we move on to our final language class. In language class we thought we were going to have an exam, but it turned out to be a game. My team won one round, which was great. Tension between China and Vietnam is rising, so we can not go to our final company visit because there were protests.

After lunch I got ice cream... for about the 5th time. YUM

Day 10!

Hey!

Today is wednesday, and we are getting close to the end of our trip. This is very sad. We head over to our company visit in the morning. This visit is at Saigon Newport Corporation, which is a shipyard. This was a very interesting company, and we got to see the main trade that went on with Vietnam. This accounted for 85% of the imports and exports out of northern Vietnam. After our visit, we went to the hotel to have lunch. We always eat breakfast at the hotel, but this was our first lunch here. (It was delicious) We put on comfy clothes and then headed over to the war remnants museum. This was probably the most uncomfortable I have felt in Vietnam. Everything was very anti America, but it was a great experience to see the war from another perspective. This evening I went our with Julia and the gang to a barbecue restaurant where I fried my own shrimp and ate a goat tit. Wow... never thought I would say that.

This is a picture of my friend Julie and me.

Day 9!

Hi Bloggers!

Today was short. We headed over to UEF and had our culture class. This was interesting because we learned a lot about different dress and religion of the Vietnamese people. After culture class we had another language class. Today we switched it up a bit, and we played a game. I lost miserably, but it was still fun. Mike and Dr. Berman decided to give us the afternoon off because we have all been working so hard. I went to the pool when we got back to the hotel. That night I finally got to ride a motorbike (don't worry mom... I wore a helmet). Garrett and I went to the food court at the mall for dinner, and I ate pho. 

Day 8!

Hello Bloggers!

It's Monday, and we have a lot planned for today. We get to leave later then 8:15, which is a dream come true. We have language class at a closer UEF location. I like this site better, but a lot of other students did not. Ms. Tuyet made sure that we learned how to bargain in Vietnamese today because we are heading to the market afterwards. We learned how to ask "how much is this?", and we learned all of the different numbers. When we got to the market a lot of Vietnamese people were surprised when I asked in their language, and I think it helped me get a better discount. I bought a lot of souvenirs for my friends and family. I can't wait to show everyone. This evening we went to a temple, and it was cool because Buddha's birthday is tomorrow. Finally we headed over to the place where the monk burned himself alive. This was very interesting because I have heard about this monk many times in high school. I then got ice cream which was delicious.

Day 7

Hey hi hello!

Whats up bloggers!? So today we are going to THE BEACH! Tin Tin is super excited because we are seeing a statue of Jesus before we go to the ocean. Everyone is very confused, but this reminds me of the Buddha that I went into in Japan. The bus ride is pretty long, but once we get there we start to walk up to Jesus. We all debated whether or not that the walk was on a small mountain or a big hill. I voted for the hill. It was not that far. However, it was very hot. At the top I bought a ice pop, and Tin Tin walked up to the top of Jesus. Later, we went to lunch, which was the best lunch thus far. After lunch was the beach. This was great, and everyone had a lot of fun. That night we were all tired, but we had a lot of fun.

Day 6

Cháo ban Cháo ban!

Today is the tunnels day! We woke up and went to breakfast in the hotel. Then we went on a LONG bus ride. It took 2 and a half hours. When we got there we got off the bus and headed over to the bathroom. This was my first experience using a bathroom in Vietnam that did not have toilet paper, and it was scary. We then headed over to the woods where we went to a hut to learn about the Chu Chi tunnels. Dan and I gave a short overview before we saw a video about the war. It was very anti-america, which made many of us uncomfortable. Then we went into a few of the tunnels.  After we got lunch on a dock which was very yummy. Then we went to a graveyard with fallen viet soldiers. This was very sad. We went home and had a restful evening before the beach

Day 5

Choa ban Choa ban!

It's Friday! Friday! Gotta get down on Friday! So we woke up this morning and went to breakfast. I don't think I tried anything new today, but it was still good. We got on the bus and headed over to UEF. Today was fun. We had our morning classes, but afterwards we went over to the library. The English club made a bunch of activities for us. My group won! GO DEEZ NUTZ! Then we went home and ate dinner. We just hung out in the room this evening because we know we have a big day tomorrow!

Day Four!!

Yo Yo,

So, seeing from the last post.. I was very well rested for today's adventures. Again, we had breakfast at the Victory Hotel. I tried the porridge today (it isn't vietnamese but it was good). I accidentally put too much butter in it. After breakfast we loaded into the bus with Tin Tin and headed over to UEF. We had a guest lecturer who was very interesting. He talked to us about Vietnamese culture, and he focused on the Me Kong Delta. After that we had another language class which was just as frustrating as all the other ones.

Later we headed over to Glass Egg digital media. This was a very interesting company that is based solely in Vietnam. The company creates graphics for video games, and we got to see all of the workers on their computers. The one girl was making an app called O Club which was exactly like tinder but it was blue and pink. The owners were extremely polite and insightful.

That night we went to Broma "Not a Bar"... but really a bar. It was great. We were drinking on the roof of a building. A bunch of people smoke apple flavored hookah (I think everyone except myself). Lauren and I got a virgin pina coladas Overall great day.

Also I threatened Ben with this photo of him.

Thing I realized today.. A lot of people know English.

Day 3

Hello Hello!

Today we woke up and went to breakfast at the hotel. YUM. We then got on the bus and headed over to VSIP which is the acronym for Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park. Today we had to skip the classes with UEF because the company visits took up the whole day. VSIP was the company that I researched prior to departure. It felt great going into the company visit and really understanding what they were talking about. We had a quick briefing and then we had time for Q&A. They had a very cool model of the industrial parks that they built. I already knew what the park was for, but then a woman from the company explained to us different aspects of their company. (i.e. the reason that there is no park in singapore is because they do not have any more land in their nation) After VSIP we proceeded to II-VI. This was my FAVORITE company visit so far. It was so beyond interesting. II-VI is a laser optics company. They toured us around their factories, and I was in my "happy place".  I got to see a lot of things that I have learned in my freshmen classes (such as electrolysis). Overall, this was a great day for company visits. After the company visits I had my favorite meal in Viet Nam thus far. The lunch was excellent. It was a lot of seafood and vegetables. We then went to the ceramic place and I bought a lot of souvenirs. When we got back.. Brittany, Hailey, and I passed out for a nap.... We slept from 4-9 and (accidentally). Hailey never actually woke up until the morning, but Brit and I went and got dinner then went back to sleep. Ha-Ha.

Thing I learned today... Tin Tin takes a LOT of pictures

Day 2

 HI HI!

Day two was great. We woke up and had a delicious breakfast... yet again. Then we went over to the UEF to see our friends and take some classes. First we had a lecture speaker who told us about Vietnam, and it gave us an overview for our day. After the speaker (who studied at harvard!), we had our language class. We went over consonants today. That was interesting.. this is a very hard language. We had lunch at the canteen, and then we all got on the bus to go over to Phu My Hung. This company  is an urban planning business. We saw the DUCK which was in Pittsburgh just the other day. For dinner we went out with our Vietnamese friends. Afterwards.. we ALL went to lush. It was very fun, but there were some issues with the money.

First Day (May 5th)

Hi Bloggers!

Today was the first day in Viet Nam. We got up at 8am and got ready for our day. Hailey, Brittany, and I went down to the Victory Hotels breakfast. This was an adventure.. we had never seen some of the food before. After breakfast, we got in our UEF bus with Tin-tin and the rest of the gang. We drove to UEF where we met all of their students involved in our program. They put on a dance for us, and one girl sang to us. Abe got pulled into the karaoke, and he was not bad. After the introductions we proceeded to another room where we had our Vietnamese Language class. This class was very very VERY difficult. We then went to lunch in the canteen. After UEF we went over to consulate, which was a great experience. We learned a lot about the history of the U.S. consulate as well as the war between Viet Nam and America. Then we had our welcome dinner at Rap and Roll. As a group we all went out to a bar.

This is a group photo from the first day at UEF.

First post. Test

Hi bloggers! 

 This is Morgan Austin. I am on Viet Nam plus 3 with the University of Pittsburgh. After traveling for a total of 28 hours, eating 4 airplane meals, sleeping a lot, and 3 airplane rides... We arrived. More will be posted shortly.