The following is an XXL facebook comment addressed to Matt Baker, my bro and roommate from Pitt:

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There's too much going on to reflect upon at the moment. I'll need a week or so before i have it sorted out enough to describe thoughts. Here's a little but though: today (not 10 minutes ago actually) we went to the War Remnants Museum (formerly known as the American War Crimes Museum). This place portrays the USEF is the worst light with shocking photos, sensationalized stories and descriptions of artifacts. I felt really uncomfortable as an American being there, and I can't imagine how my advisor (a VN war vet) felt. It doesn't matter if half that stuff in that place is true or not, this is how the VN view their history.
However this trip hardy ever focuses on the past, or specifically the war. The museum visit was just one component.
WHEN I go camping with you guys this summer I'll have story time around the fire. Hopefully by then my observations will have yielded a conclusion. Now I'm just scrambling to make sure I remember my time here after I leave.

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Yeah so that happened today. Before that we dressed up and took our bus to the HCMC Stock Exchange. I won't say anything bad about it, however, I am a student with interests deeply seated in the sciences and engineering. Infer what you will from that statement.
I don't know what I'll do for the rest of the afternoon, probably souvenir shopping at a market. The trip really feels like it's coming to a close (which it is). There's so much more to be done here whether it's in HCMC or not. I'd enjoy a trip to Hanoi and Singapore or somewhere, but I guess I'll just have to save that for another time.

Yesterady we went to the Mekong Delta. Doc kept trying to scare us with stories of snakes leaping up on the the boats, especially since Greg is deathly afraid of snakes. We stopped by a Cau Dai temple and a VN verteran cemetery on the way. It was a welcome change of scenery on the delta. Everything we very organic compared to the concrete musty city. The river culture is interesting; floating markets and boats. The villages on the countryside are the the shops in the city. In the city there will be a street block devoted only to selling a specific item, like electronics, or bike paraphenalia (some of the shops literally sell only one type of thing, like bike mirrors). In the country, the villages specialize in one thing as well such as brick making, basket weaving or tailoring.
We stopped by some delta houses and restaurants, also a coconut candy shop where we sat out the monsoon. Those storms only last about 20minutes but it rains buckets. It's a monsoon. I'm glad we're here to witness the beginning of the rainy season.
Today was a VN cooking lesson and then we sponsored an orphange to go to the water park. That was gratifying and all the kids were really thankful to be there. I just don'ts likes waters parks that much.
k, bye.

heres is a times for mores pictures time


daily lunch at UEF



Tom dets caught in the monsoon rain


H&S party symbols posted in city, accompanied by SRV star further down the street.


heres its is, with workers


Phu My Hung Corp. plan for "crescent" project of New S. Saigon Dist. 7


Another Phu My Hung plan for Dist 7


Me and Vietnamese language instructor, Ms. Thi.


+3 group and chairman of ASCENX engineering services, Tung Bach


a littles dogs

Sup. Things are going well here. We're all getting along and having a great time. The companies we've been visiting are very interesting and applicable to business and engineering topics in the region. We visited the US consulate here a few days ago. Getting in for a visit was a big deal for us and I hope we all appreciated it. I did. It's on the site of the old US RVN embassy and has some important history associated with it.
Also we visited Glass Egg Digital Media, who designs in-game artwork for many major video game labels. They COEs there started Glass Egg from scratch and took great advantages of opportunities in the game industry and the VN economy to make a highly successful business. They also hold shares in the local night club, Lush. We went there that night and had a good time, met some locals and forigners, and danced with cute VN girls.
We went to Phu My Hung corporation. They are a city planner in South Saigon partially responsible for constructing the new city. Since Saigon was originally designed for about 40,000 people in French colonial times, today's population of 8M is straining it. New S. Saigon will have higher capacity infrastructure (larger sewers and streets, more electrical power, strategically-placed loading docks for shipping, etc...) for HCMC's large and growing population.
All these visits give a great picture of the VN economic scence, but we're also getting cultural education from our dailiy visits to UEF. More on that later.
I will now get ready for the day.

BTWs it's 07:36 now. GMT +7hrs, EDST +11hrs.

Too exhausted to type. Here are commented pictures instead.














We all wore some sort of blue shirt by coincidence.
















Through the bus on the way to University of Economics and Finance: Some shops and motor bikes.



Welcome to UEF


With UEF NV students


In front of old RVN prez palace.


With the tank that broke the palace gates in 1975.


Street from palace.


The Man, himself at HCMC post office.

Landed in Ho Chi Minh City and just checked into the Victory Hotel.
My hotel room is very spacious, especially since I am not sharing it with anyone.














It's a pleasant 77 degrees F but midday heat is about 95. This is typical.
We begin our stay in the city right off with a visit to the university at 09:00.
To Do: finish unpacking, shower, sleep.

***written Sat. May, 2, 2009 21:34 EDST***

We're in the air now somewhere over Russia. Chicago-Hong Kong is a 15-hour flight and we're less than half way there. My Body has no clue what time it is now. I did a good job of tricking myself into thinking it was evening during my morning flight, which should make it morning now, but it feels like time has flozen as we chase the sun across the sky. We flew over the pole so I haven't seen darkness for 24 hours. I won't until arrival in HCMC. I'm excited to land in Hong Kong. Seeing the city from a plane must be a great sight.

***Currently***

15 hours is a long time to fly.
I did bring my laptop. It's a good thing too, since the hotel will have WiFi. Flying into Hong Kong wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be. The haze is so thick we couldn't see anything but hills (and haze). Also, there is little daylight even at 5:30pm. I had a little dinner and now we're waiting to depart. Dr. Berman will be waiting for us in HCMC.

Tomorrow we'll all be on our way to Ho Chi Minh City.

My flight itinerary is as follows:


Saturday 2 May 2009

Arrive: Chicago O'Hare Int'l Airport
7:50 AM (meet up with group)

Depart: Chicago O'Hare Int'l Airport
12:22 PM

Arrive: Hong Kong Int'l Airport
Sunday, May 03, 2009
4:45 PM

Depart: Hong Kong Int'l Airport
8:40 PM

Arrive: Ho Chi Minh City Airport
10:05 PM

Just a few more items to collect and pack before I'm 100% ready to go. I'm going to try to stay up all night to prepare for the +12 hour time change. Hopefully I can sleep on the planes. I'm still debating over whether to bring my laptop or not. I won't need it for much if we can't get internet in the hotel rooms.

Good luck to everyone on Plus3. I sincerely hope you all have safe, fun, adventurous journeys.