I started off another amazing day here in Vietnam. We went to UEF and had an amazing lecture. The material was very interesting specifically to me. Talking about organizational resilience in an unpredictable or foreign environment sounds boring, but in an international context which this whole trip is, interests me a lot. I love learning about different cultures and the perspectives from different countries, so this trip has been amazing. The first lecture the professor mentioned many real-world scenarios, like UK banning people born in 2008 and onward from purchasing nicotine products. I saw this headline on social media as well prior to today and other news articles he mentioned, and it weirded me out that we read the same stuff even though we live on opposite sides of the planet. Again, what he talked about is stuff I think about all the time. The whole point of the lecture was how can businesses be sustainable and resilient. This was the underlying message throughout his lecture, so when he said that about the UK, I thought how are the cigarette companies going to adapt when their market dies out, literally in years to come. The lecture made me think about so many other things too. Afterwards we learned Vietnamese a little bit. I tried my best out of respect for the students, but it is so hard to learn. Afterwards we went to the Hyatt Saigon. This was the highlight of my day. She kept talking about how they try to make this luxury hotel feel like home for the customers. My dream job is to own a zoo so not exactly a hotel, but similar in some ways. She talked about customer personalization a lot and she caught my attention a few times. An example she gave was reserving a spot in the restaurant so that the guest can have their preferred seating arrangement when they come to dine. She also said that the check-in desk wasn’t right as you walk in the door. It sounds weird at first because every hotel is like that, but the reason behind it is that in your home there isn’t a front desk and that is why it isn’t instantly the first thing you see. I am not a marketing major, but the way this hotel is designed was very unique yet still very effective. The staff of the Hyatt Saigon was very diverse. Our guide said that they hired first from a disadvantaged candidate pool, which is nice, but then we met an American who had been working at the restaurant for 9 months. The staff comes from varied backgrounds; there is no doubt about it. Personally, when I find myself in this situation, I think it is important to look at the team or organization’s goal or mission and find similarities between members. The Hyatt’s mission was, “caring for people, so they can be their best”. I think that is a great model for a hotel service. All the workers from diverse backgrounds can get behind that and enjoy and share in the results. The hospitality I received and saw from the Hyatt hotel site visit to the language class today was amazing.