The Least Predictable Sporting Event Ever

Forget Mayweather vs Paquiao, today was the match-up of the century. Pitt vs UEF, America vs Vietnam, in basketball and soccer. Led by Coach B-Schultz, the American team was heavily favored for basketball with a strong height advantage. Soccer was the sport to fear as it is far more popular in Vietnam than America. The matches were held early, to avoid heat but the crowded gym was still a furnace. The result? Basketball: a Vietnamese victory. Soccer: an American thrashing. That can't be right... How is that possible!?
Here's what happened. Despite being tall Americans, we forgot to consider the fact that we are all terrible at basketball. Aster was the only one who could score. That's right, Aster, one of the smallest girls on the trip, was our MVP. Meanwhile, their team was actually fairly good and much taller than the average Vietnamese student. During soccer, our co-ed teams were fairly evenly matched as both teams took advantage of the other team's inexperienced players. Then, during the girls game, the American team absolutely dominated as most of the girls on the trip were experienced soccer players. Although, yet again, Aster managed to score most of the goals.
Overall, I had a lot of fun playing the students but I wish there was more time for me to play soccer as the co-ed game seemed rather short and the was no men's game.
Post sports was lunch, which unfortunately I think most Pitt students were not happy with. While the food was delicious as always, I was drenched in sweat and all I could think about was a shower. To make things worse, we got lost on our way to the restaurant and were stuck in the sun for about half an hour. Regardless, we ate and made it back to the hotel to swim, shower, and sleep, which felt amazing.
That night was our farewell dinner, which we all got dressed up for. I put on my new, tailored suit and took pictures in the lobby with the whole group. Then we headed out to our dinner which was on a boat. The boat traveled up and down the Saigon river as we ate, giving us a spectacular view of the city. They also had live music which was great and a "flamenco" dance number that was really just two women dancing around in flamenco dresses. While it wasn't really authentic, it was still entertaining.
And that concludes my trip to Vietnam! I'm really sad to go, although I am very exhausted. Vietnam has certainly made an amazing impression on me and I will definitely look for opportunities to return. Hen gap lai!

Make Pho Not War

Today, after our last classes at UEF, we explored a few of memorials of the Vietnam War in HCMC. We walked from the Xa Loi Buddhist Pagoda to the Thich Quang Duc Memorial. Thich Quang Duc was the Buddhist monk who took this same path before he famously doused himself in gasoline and lit himself on fire in protest of President Ngo Dinh Diem's oppression of Buddhism. At the time, President Diem was part of a catholic elite ruling over a dominantly Buddhist South Vietnam. This "democratic" government that imprisoned and tortured Buddhists for their religion was backed by the U.S. simply because it wasn't communist.

After seeing the memorial to Thich Quang Duc, we traveled to the War Remnants Museum, which focused on the extreme violence used by Americans in supporting South Vietnam's government in the Vietnam War. Captured weaponry, hundreds of graphic images, and excerpts of news articles portrayed the horror of the war quite powerfully. While I knew going into the museum that the Vietnam War was brutally violent, I was still shocked by many of the exhibits. The most jarring was the exhibit on Agent Orange, an herbicide used by Americans to kill crops, trees, and people. I knew that Agent Orange was still causing health problems in many parts of Vietnam today, but I wasn't really familiar with what those problems were. The exhibit consisted of many images of horrific birth defects caused by Agent Orange. While walking through the exhibit, I could not believe that my government had endorsed the use of such barbaric weaponry to not only harm innocent civilians, but to harm their unborn children. Throughout this and other displays of what my country had done, I wanted to blame the bias of the museum. Surely, this is all exaggerated and skewed. While I was able to tell that the museum was biased against America, the parts that were disturbing were images. While it is certainly possible to lie with a picture, it's still hard to deny the horror in a picture of an American soldier standing over two freshly decapitated Vietnamese heads or a picture of a stack of bodies burned by napalm. At the same time, I had to consider the violence committed by the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong. I thought back to the Cu Chi tunnels, where the tour guide prodded a patch of grass with a stick to activate a gruesome trap involving bamboo spikes dipped in human excrement. Still, even if the brutality was requited, America's extremely violent acts were not justified by any means.

The most confusing part about visiting the War Remnants Museum was realizing that America came to Vietnam to participate in a war that left 3 million Vietnamese dead through horrific methods and yet today, 40 years after the end of the war, Vietnam is one of the most pro-American countries in the world. While it is important to consider that I am in Saigon and not Hanoi, I am still blown away that strangers come up and take pictures with me simply because I'm American. I would expect at least a hint of caution or resentment when interacting with Americans as opposed to the tremendous hospitality I've received on this trip. 

5 Star Shipping

This morning was the most delicious of the trip so far. We visited the first 5 star hotel in Saigon, New World, for Vietnamese cooking lessons. The lessons involved wrapping spring rolls and was pretty simple, but the lunch afterwards was what really made my morning. All you can eat sushi, fish, beef, sausage, fruit, desserts, and much much more. My favorite was the bread and cheese because for the whole trip we have been eating phenomenal bread, thanks to the French colonization, but never with cheese because true dairy is basically non existent in Vietnamese cuisine. So that baguette with brie couldn't have tasted any better.

After lunch we headed to Saigon Newport Corporation, a massive port shipping company run by the Vietnamese navy. We were given a presentation and a tour of a port near HCMC. The major point I drew from this was that the success of government run companies relies on the patriotism of their workers. Our guide explained that even though she is in a high managerial position, she makes equal or less than workers out on the docks, like crane operators. She explained that she does this because she feels that she is advancing her nations economy and making it stronger. This mentality is ideal for any communist nation as working for the betterment of your country is crucial. From this discussion I was better able to grasp how Vietnam functions under communist rule economically. While many thriving businesses are private and operate on capitalist values, state owned corporations also play a crucial role in the economy and are driven by nationalism.

International Lasers

The Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) was our primary destination for today, the home of II-VI, a company based just outside of Pittsburgh that specializes in optics components, such as lasers. We began with a talk on VSIP, which was my company of focus for the trip. In a country where government managed companies typically perform terribly and weigh the economy down, I was impressed by VSIP's success despite its close operation with the governments of Vietnam and Singapore. From what I gathered this was because it was mostly privately managed, but was heavily supported by the governments. Because of this relationship, VSIP is able to provide special services like private customs offices to attract tenants to the park. The presentation was fairly interesting but also brief. I was very disappointed by the Q&A session because the VSIP representative only allowed for a few questions. This will make writing my post trip paper on VSIP fairly difficult but I still enjoyed the visit.
As mentioned before, one of VSIP's tenants is II-VI, who gave us a much more extensive presentation and a tour of their production facilities in VSIP. The tour was a valuable experience for me because I was able to see first hand the processes of manufacturing complicated devices. Most of the tour consisted of following the production line of TEMs, from raw materials to finished product. I was fascinating by this process because I actually understood some of the steps from what I had learned in my freshman year. It was a nice reassurance to understand how the electrolysis station plates the semi-conductors with gold or nickle or how to adjust an anti-reflective coating to meet your specifications. I am excited to understand more about applied technologies such as these as I advance my education.

Apparently I’m Every Vendor’s First Customer at Ben Thahn Market

Today I had one goal: to bargain my way to as many souvenirs as possible within an hour at Saigon’s famous Ben Thahn Market. We started the day with Vietnamese language lessons on numbers and how to haggle prices, but largely those skills went unused since virtually the entire market speaks English to better appeal to countless streams of Western tourists. That being said, loudly shouting “mac qua!” (too much!) definitely helped the vendor’s reception of my obnoxiously low initial bids. It often forced them to break their script of “handsome man, you my first customer” and “this price make us both lucky.” These phrases were often coupled with aggressive grabbing of arms which definitely came as a shock but was not difficult to avoid once I knew to avoid eye contact and keep walking if I wasn’t interested. I picked up gifts for family and friends as well as a few souvenirs for myself for about 60-70% of the price tag, which I was fairly happy with.

After the market, we traveled to VinaCapital Foundation (VCF) to learn about what they do as an NGO (non-governmental organization) in Vietnam. We spoke to a number of higher ups in VCF as well as their parent company, VinaCapital Group and discussed a number of social issues in Vietnam that VCF works to solve. One of the most interesting topics discussed was wealth disparity. It is easy to see that Vietnam’s economy is rapidly growing, and has been for some time now, but what I learned from this visit is that much of this increased wealth is focused in the upper classes. Poverty is still very prominent in the nation, especially amongst ethnic minorities who are often discriminated against by their Viet neighbors. While legislation has been passed to rectify this, proper enforcement has not been carried out. This seems to be a trend in Vietnam, where the government is making some good decisions to advance their nation, but beaurocracy and corruption are holding the country back.

Jesus was Sweaty

BEACH DAY! We ventured out to a coastal city about 3 hours away from HCMC called Vung Tau. We began the day by climbing a seemingly infinitely long stair way up a mountain to a Cristo Rendendor-esque statue of Jesus overlooking the coastline. The hike, coupled with a long wait in the crowded staircase to reach the lookout on Jesus’ outstretched arms, made me sweat more than I have in my entire life. That being said, the view was worth every drop.

After descending the mountain, we took to the beach at a nearby resort. The water was warm but still refreshing. As I swam out into the pacific I encountered many plastic bags and other trash that I confused for jellyfish, and then I came across actual jellyfish that were massive but luckily easy to avoid. The day overall was very relaxing despite near everybody getting extremely sunburnt, and it was a nice conclusion to a long week. I can’t believe the trip is already almost halfway over and I look forward to making the most of my final days here in Vietnam.

Cu Chi

For the first time on the trip, we ventured out of HCMC to the Cu Chi District, the home of the infamous tunnel system used by the Viet Cong to ambush and evade American forces. About two hours outside HCMC, the Cu Chi tunnels began with bomb shelters being connected by tunnels to allow for movement from village to village. With the French occupation, these tunnels were expanded into a complex web. During the Vietnam War, they were further expanded to the point where the tunnel systems essentially acted as underground cities, complete with living spaces, kitchens, medical centers, entertainment, and extensive tunnels for transportation and access. These tunnels, despite persistent bombing from American B52s, allowed Viet Cong soldiers to live underground for months, attacking American forces through ambushes and traps. 

The tunnels we visited, which were widened for tourists, forced me to crawl on hands and knees for the majority of the time. The rooms varied in size, but even the largest felt dark, hot, and confined. I could hardly bear a few minutes of traversing 30 meters in the tunnels, I can't even fathom spending months traversing the 250 kilometers of the entire system with limited rations. As much as I try to avoid praising the killing of Americans, I couldn't help but respect the complexity of the tunnels and the dedication of the Viet Cong to their cause. Because of these attributes, the tunnels were extremely effective. For example, while walking through the forest we encountered a number of termite mounds. Our tour guide pointed to one and explained how it was actually camouflage for an air intake while another, larger mound was actually a bunker with discreet slits at its base to allow for the Viet Cong to fire without being seen. Our guide also demonstrated that right below where we were standing, a small trap door was hidden under a thin layer of leaves. After he squeezed himself through the opening, he resealed the entrance and once again it was impossible to locate. A few moments later he appeared behind us from another trapdoor. While walking through this section of the forest, I would not have been able to identify any of the tunnel features without them being explicitly pointed out. Despite the tunnels not adhering to a master plan, I was impressed by the design and craftsmanship of the system.

After visiting the tunnels and eating lunch at a spectacular restaurant floating on the river, we ventured to a large war memorial to the soldiers who died in Cu Chi. This memorial consisted of a large temple complete with numerous sculptures and works of art. The most interesting of these were mosaics that covered the perimeter walls of the temple that were dedicated to the history of Vietnam. This history largely consisted of foreign occupation, most notably the Chinese and the French. These mosaics showed the horrors of these occupations (quite graphically) and glorified those who fought against their foreign oppressors. The last wall was dedicated to the Vietnam War, where the North Vietnamese successfully unified their country in independence from foreign powers. This depiction of the Vietnam War was interesting in that it showed the other side of the story. To many Vietnamese during the war, Americans were invading their country using horrendous acts of violence. The achievement of Vietnamese independence is one that can be celebrated by the entire nation, no matter which side they sided on during the war.