Our third day in Vietnam! After breakfast, we started out the morning with another guest lecturer, this time on Rural Development in the Mekong River Delta. This one was really interesting. The professor grew up in the region, so he was an expert on the area. We learned all about the economy of the area, who lives there, and what their lives are like. I follow a lot of National Geographic photographers on Instagram, and lately some of them have been posting a lot of pictures of the Mekong River Delta, so it was particularly interesting for me to learn about the area. Climate change is a huge threat in the region since most of the area will be covered with water of ocean levels rise considerably. It was interesting to learn about that aspect, since it deals with issues that have a direct effect on my life, too. After the lecture, we had a short break, and then another language class. We're quickly becoming friends with the Vietnamese students through the classes. It really is a big help to have them there with us to help us with our pronunciations, and to help us practice the phrases. They're all so nice.
Since we're three days in already, apparently it's time for people to start getting sick. A bunch of us have been having small problems adjusting to the food and the climate, and it's affecting some people more than others. Some people didn't even make it to class this morning, and had to stay at the hotel. A couple more people left throughout the day, so by mid-afternoon, we had decidedly less than the whole group present.
Lunch was great as usual, and then we were off to the US Commercial Service. We didn't know what to expect, but it turned out to actually be pretty cool. The department is basically an offshoot of the US Consulate, which is located in the city. It was located in the Diamond Square Plaza, a big skyscraper in the middle of the city. We had to go through security to get in and everything. We had a briefing from the Principal Commercial Officer, Patrick Wall. Not that many people are aware of what the Commercial Service does (I had no idea they even existed before today), but their jobs sound really cool. They basically facilitate business between the US and whatever country they're in. They hire themselves out to companies for a small fee, and in return they help gauge the market interest for that company in the country, help them deal with any political or legal hurdles, and hook them up with contacts and potential partners in country. Our briefing was fascinating: Mr. Wall had a bunch of great stories about instances over the years where his department was integral in closing some big deals for some major US companies.
After the briefing, we had time to relax before we went out for the night. One of our new friends, Kate, who is the president of the English Club at UEF, took us out for dinner. At this point, we only had 14 of the 20 students who weren't either too sick or too tired to tag along, but we made do. We went out to this restaurant, and there just happened to be a cat chilling on the top floor where we were sitting. We basically spent the whole meal playing with the cat. After dinner, we taxi'd over to a bakery and got these things that I think were called Singapore cakes, which were basically creme puffs with different toppings. So good! We brought them to this awesome coffeehouse to eat. It was in this alley close to these train tracks, but inside there was a small, misty pond, and a bunch of people just drinking coffee and hanging out. It was definitely worth the drive over.
I can't believe we're almost half a week through the trip. We've already done so much! Tomorrow, we're going to Glass Egg, which will be very cool. Until then.
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