The first day in Vietnam was phenomenal, but the second is not far behind. Today, we started with a trip to the University of Economics and Finance for a lecture on sustainability and resilience in businesses. We were taught about the pillars of resilience and how going green can help with economic sustainability for businesses and society, which has been implemented into organizations around the country. With the insightful information given, we worked together with UEF students to create a short 3 minute pitch for a service model that works in the United States, but has not been fully fleshed out yet in Vietnam. Our group, with Mia and Roy from the UEF, chose to pitch a pet care service which ultimately resulted in us winning and being rewarded with UEF swag which we all signed. We then went into a Vietnamese language learning session, which opened my eyes to how the language is pronounced and organized. We practiced how to introduce ourselves and say which country we are from. Roy even personally taught me how to pronounce the entire Vietnamese alphabet, count to ten, learn basic buying terms, and help with my understanding of the Vietnamese diacritical marks, which went beyond the scope of the first lesson. It is so amazing that even with a language barrier, we were able to understand each other through smiles and laughs, fist bumps, and great snacks provided by the UEF.

So far, the hospitality of the UEF has only been rivaled by that of the Park Hyatt. As we visited the Park Hyatt, we were informed about their global reach and how many luxury hotels they have across the world. I believe that having a global presence like Park Hyatt has is vital to holding on to their brand name and potential, especially in the luxury industry space. Once you have stayed in one, you’ll never want to stay anywhere else. As mentioned earlier, Park Hyatt has been implementing ways of going green which increases their sustainability. They are changing how keys work to stay up to date and protect the environment, along with managing how resources are used to make sure none are wasted. I was very impressed by the diverse options of foods and desserts the Park Hyatt offered its guests. With multiple restaurants with different cultural backgrounds and many dessert options, like macarons and high end chocolate, Park Hyatt does not disappoint. Our group had a brief run in with a high level culinary expert that told us about how each restaurant operated and told us about how they needed to taste over 50 types mooncakes so they knew which to ship out for the Mid-Autumn Festival at the end of September. It was great to learn about how businesses have been implementing sustainability into practice and I know I will look out for how each company includes it in upcoming site visits.