The first class of the day was a lecture of
urban development in Ho Chi Minh City. As a prospective civil engineer, I
thoroughly enjoyed the talk and was very interested in the source material. Ho
Chi Minh City has come a long way in the past twenty years since the Doi Moi
economic restoration, but it still has a long way to go. After class ended, the
teachers gave us a short break where we could explore right off the campus. A
large group of students and I found a small shop where we got to try Vietnamese
iced coffee. It was excellent, and I'll definitely be drinking that every day
on the trip. Then we had a second language class where we learned introductions
from our new Vietnamese friends. I'm having some trouble with the language,
especially the tones, but it is still very fun to learn. By the end of these
next two weeks, I'm hoping to have fully learned some basic phrases.
Following class, we went out for a nice lunch
and then visited the Phu My Hung Corporation. They are an urban planning
company who are currently undertaking a huge construction project in South
Saigon that is 20 years in the making. They gave us a pretty impressive
presentation and the urban center they are creating is beautiful. The goal of
Phu My Hung is to create an urban environment that is not as crowded as the
majority of Ho Chi Minh City while also placing a heavy emphasis on maintaining
the environment. I thought very highly of the company's efforts, and I was
highly impressed by the extensiveness of the planned city. I think that the
corporation's project is going to be to represent the future of construction in
that green construction takes center stage and urban areas are extensively planned
for multiple situations. Dr. Berman brought up an interesting point however on
the initial start-up of the development. The corporation portrayed the lands as
a wasteland before, but it was actually farmland used by a small population.
The government took control of the land, as land is not owned by individuals in
Vietnam's communist system, and let Phu My Hung take over control. It brought
up an intriguing dilemma, where one must decide the benefit of urbanization in
a economically undeveloped country to the moral problem of taking over an
individual's property. I appreciate how so far in two days, there were already
two major philosophical points that were brought up, one about Vietnamese
higher education on the first day and consequences of urban development on the
second. The program definitely offers more than I expected in terms of critical
thinking, and I very much like the challenge.
The group arrived back at the hotel at around
6 o'clock and we met up with the Vietnamese students shortly afterward. They
took us to a restaurant where we had pho, a traditional noodle dish in this
country. It was fantastic, my initial picky eater worries have been more than
overcome. The students took us to a local hangout in the city next to a church
and we explored more downtown. One girl Kate, who is the primary Vietnamese
student in charge of our activities, offered to take students back to the
church Saturday evening for mass. I am very curious as to how their mass will
be presented, so I think I will take her up on that offer. Tomorrow the
Vietnamese students offered to take us out again, and I am very excited for
that opportunity. Other than that, I'm pretty tired, goodnight!
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P.S. The pictures don't do the city justice
P.P.S. This baby was staring at our group of Americans, and I
thought he was adorable. His mom thankfully said I could take this
picture.
P.P.P.S. This picture is for my dad, an avid Popeye's fried
chicken lover. They are everywhere around here, and one was even three stories
tall. WOW!
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