Day Four

Day four in Vietnam began a bit earlier than the others, as our morning schedule had something new. Instead of heading straight to UEF, we headed to the Jade Emperor Pagoda, a Taoist Temple built in 1909. It was truly an incredible experience. Apart from being my first experience with Taosim, it was such a stark contrast to the fast-paced, rapid westernization and development we had been experiencing. Just two blocks away from a budding finance University and a flurry of fruit smoothie shops and Cafes was a quiet, shady temple hanging with the mist of a four-thousand year old religion. After the temple visit we returned to UEF for a lesson on Vietnamese History and Culture. We learned about hte many different peoples and cultures that make up Vietnam's population, beyond just the Viet people. Vietnam is home to many culturally different peoples such as the Khmer, E De, and Hao. We also got to try some culturally significant Vietnamese food, such as the Rambutan, a spiky tree fruit with a sweet juicy core. After the lesson we headed to Kent university for another delicious Vietnamese lunch.

In the afternoon we got dressed in business casual and headed to Glass Egg Digital Media for another business visit. Glass Egg is a 3D artwork producer that primarily makes 3D objects and landscapes for video games. Glass Egg is one of the best in the industry worldwide; they have contracts with Microsoft and Sony, and produce most of the cars and maps for the Forza racing game series. The founder and CEO of Glass EGG is Phil Tran. Phil Tran is a Vietnamese immigrant who came to America at the age of 12 in 1975. His father was a member of the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN), and in desperation to get his family out of the city before the North Vietnamese arrived put out a message for someone in the U.S to take his family in. Luckily his message was answered, and his family was saved. After Phil told us his story, Miss Lan, a professor from UEF and Dr. Berman's counterpart, began to tell us her story. Miss Lan rarely speaks of her own childhood in Vietnam, but perhaps something about hearing Phil's story encouraged her to do so. Miss Lan's father was a member of the South Vietnamese Army during the fall of Saigon as well. Unlike Phil's father, he was not so lucky. Miss Lan's father was captured by the North Vietnamese and killed, and Miss Lan's family was forced to live under communist rule. Miss Lan's childhood was very painful; family of South Vietnamese sympathizers were socially, economically, and educationally discriminated against. It's impossible to know just what Miss Lan's feelings are, but had I lived her childhood, it would be difficult for me not to harbor some sort of resentment for those like Phil Tran, who were able to escape. Regardless, the whole experience was incredible. Hearing the stories of how two living people experienced the same historical event, and seeing them talk about their lives in a room together today was like being present for the filming of a documentary. 

After our Glass Egg visit, we headed back to the hotel to relax in the pool. For dinner we went to a barbecue restaurant with some of the students from UEF. The tables at the restaurant had built in grills, and we cooked our own food. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel to end the night.