Day 8

It’s Monday which means more educational stuff to do. Fantastic…

Our plan for today was to go talk to the people from Highland’s Coffee and Viet Thai (VTI). My group had originally researched about Highland’s so we were leading the group today which mean a lot of questions had to come from us. Two representatives from Viet Thai talked to us about both VTI and Highland’s. We all got free drinks which was amazing. I got the mango mania which was the best smoothie I’ve ever had in my life. They know how to make their drinks. Someone needs to make Highland’s happen in Pittsburgh. Okay, I’m getting a little off track. Back to the presentation, afterwards, we had another lecture talk about the business and economy of Vietnam. I thought we would get to meet David and Dan Thai who were the founders and CEO’s of the company but unfortunately, we didn’t. Next, we went to a Hard Rock Café to visit which was a little out of the blue. Viet Thai is also partnered with Hard Rock in Saigon, so one of the representatives invited us over there. We ended up getting to have lunch there which was so good. Some people got ribs which looked delicious. There was a tray of appetizers, salad, nachos and dessert. I didn’t eat too much, but it was so good. Or how the Vietnamese would say “ngon qua”. Just practicing 

We went back to the hotel for little then headed over to the War Remnants Museum. Dr. Berman had mentioned before we walked in that the representations in the museum are much different than what we hear in the US. It was actually very difficult to even look at some of the pictures. There were many disturbing photos of Agent Orange victims and victims of war. They portrayed the war as if it was Vietnam versus America instead of a civil war. They showed Americans from a very bad perspective. It’s completely different from the American side of the story. I still found the museum to be interesting. The photos were pretty graphic for the most part, but there were some very interesting photographs in display. I hear a lot about the war from my family but to see it all in front of me was overwhelming.

We walked back to the hotel after the museum and were given some time to rest until dinner. Tonight we went to a Japanese restaurant. Pretty much everything had seafood in it. I had some udon noodles which weren’t awful, but it wasn’t very good either. I guess I’m not a big fan of Japanese food. Then we went back to the ice cream shop we were at before and all had some ice cream. Now we’re all back in the hotel, and I can’t wait to finally sleep at a decent hour. I’ve been more sleep deprived than when I was in school.

YUM ICE CREAM