The Plus3 Vietnam program was a truly amazing time. Going into the program I hoped to broaden my view of the world and learn about a culture that was completely foreign to me. I was not sure if I would like it or not, but I thought it would be a great opportunity to learn, regardless of whether I enjoyed it. After finishing the program, I can say that Vietnam impressed me in so many ways and I feel very lucky that I was able to see the country the way I did on this program. Learning about how the country has transformed itself from the Vietnam War until now was incredible. The work ethic of the Vietnamese people is remarkable. Their kindness towards Americans, despite the Vietnam War, also impressed me. Everyone I met was very kind and open to me. People will just start talking to me to practice their English and others have given me extra food to try when I’m at street food stands. These acts of kindness made me feel welcome when I was across the world from my home. Even now, traveling alone I don’t feel lonely because I’ve met very nice people everywhere I’ve gone. 

During the program, each site visit we went on was different, but it seemed that every company wanted to help Vietnam move forward as a country. It was encouraging to see many companies working together with a common goal. The cultural activities were also very insightful because they allowed me to understand what’s important to Vietnam. It’s quickly becoming a modern nation, but it still retains a rich cultural identity that we saw in the Mekong, at the Buddhist temples, and while listening to the lectures at UEF. However, my favorite time to learn about the culture was during the evenings. Food is something that is very important to me and I believe the best way to learn about a culture is through its food. Lucky for me, Vietnam has one of the most fascinating cuisines I’ve ever seen. The way they balance all the different tastes in their dishes gave me an entirely new perspective on cooking. Each night I would go out exploring Ho Chi Minh City to get a sense of the food and culture. As the trip went on, I met friends who also wanted to try different things and go out each night to learn about the Vietnamese culture. Walking around with Clay, Hannah, Peter, and Aubrey was some of the most fun I had on the trip and I was really impressed with their flexibility. Each night they’d want to come along even though there wasn’t really a plan. It also made the trip a lot more fun for me because I got to experience it with friends. Through our nightly walks around the city, I learned how lead a group. My personality isn’t really one that likes to immediately take charge. However, this was different. I got to lead a bunch of friends around who were interested in the same thing I was and this was fun. Some other skills that I learned through these walks were problem solving with incomplete information and communication skills. Incomplete information pretty much describes every menu we received when we showed up at a Vietnamese street food place with no foreigners. Rarely was there English on the menu and most times the server didn’t speak much English either. I remember one night in particular when we went out to get pho and we all ordered, but the server wouldn’t walk away. It took a lot of me doing random charades, but eventually I realized that he was saying that we didn’t order pho. We had ordered some other random soup by accident and he was trying to get us to change our order. After another game of charades I was able to order pho for the table and the meal wound up being amazing.  Another important transferable skill I learned was analytical thinking. Each company visit we did provided us with a lot of information that could be overwhelming to process immediately as it was given to us. However, the blog posts each evening made me think back and analyze what the information meant. The blog posts helped me get an understanding of the larger picture and make connections between the company visits. I also analyzed the previous information I’d learned to think up questions for future site visits.

Now that the program is over, I am already beginning to miss it. At the same time though, I am grateful for the way it broadened my perspective and my view of the world. I now have a great appreciation for a culture that was previously very foreign to me. Finally, I’d like to thank everyone on the trip from Pitt and UEF for helping me understand the world a little better now.