Day Two

Today started off with a lecture on various statistics and background information about HCM City and Vietnam in general. I had quite a bit of trouble understanding the lecturer but I was able to follow along in the printed notes. Some of the information was interesting. This lecture was followed by language class part 2. I had forgotten the things learned the previous day for the most part so I had to relearn some things. The Vietnamese student who sat at my table was very helpful. He would write down on paper the Vietnamese words which the teacher was saying. This helped me to understand better than just hearing the words. I practiced conversing in Vietnamese with my helper Tuan and some other Pitt students. I am definitely improving. After the language class and lunch at UEF, we headed to the Phu My Hung section of the city which was another bus ride. Phu My Hung is a very large company which sets up almost a self contained city, where residents have almost everything they need within a short distance of home. Phu My Hung is a company but it is so large that is the name of an entire portion of HCM City. They have their own security force which patrols the area, the description of this security force sounded more like an army to me. There are sections of the Phu My Hung district for wealthy and for middle class people. Their hope is to reduce some of the crowding of HCM City by creating a type of suburban environment. My impression is that Phu My Hung has an incredible amount of power in Vietnam. After the Phu My Hung visit the jet lag really hit me. I slept for 12 hours, from 6 PM til 6 AM.