Today started bright and early as we headed out to Cat Lai Terminal, a port here in Ho Chi Minh City. This was more interesting for me than expected; the boats being loaded and unloaded were huge. Throughout the port, there was very much so a sense of organized chaos. We got to watch rice…
Tag: Julia Brown
Buddhism and War History
Today started off with a visit lesson about Buddhism and a visit to a Buddhist temple. I was intrigued to learn more about Buddhism since I did not really know much about it before. I found the ideas central to the religion to be interesting. I was also fascinated to hear about a religion that…
Not Soccer Material
I can’t believe we have already been here for a full week! Today, we started the day with a visit to Coherent, which is a company that makes engineered ceramics and optics equipment. I was particularly excited for this visit since this is very related to my interest in materials science. I found many of…
Mekong Delta Day!
Today we had no classes or company visits; we spent the whole day exploring the Mekong River Delta. This was something we were all super excited for, so even though we had to wake up early everyone was ready to go. Our day started with a two-hour long bus ride, but the energy stayed up…
Racing toward the Weekend
Today, we started our morning with a visit to Glass Egg, which is a game creation company. They render objects, characters, and environments for video games. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this visit too much compared to the others, but I was pleasantly surprised. Their main focus is rendering vehicles for motorsport games, which aligns…
Exploring All Sorts of Culture
Today was a super impactful day for me. We started the morning with a visit to Vina Capital Foundation, which is an NGO that prioritizes the children and women of rural ethnic minorities in Vietnam. They have many programs, including funding surgeries for children with congenital heart defects and funding education for girls from ethnic…
Green Day: Exploring Sustainability in Vietnam
Today, we started the day with a lecture on sustainable economics in Vietnam. I was very interested in the topic of this lecture since one of the main reasons I wanted to come here on this trip was to learn about sustainability in developing economies. One tidbit of this lecture that I found very interesting…
New Day, New Name
Xin chào! Tôi tên là Hân. Today was our first day of classes, and during our Vietnamese language class we got Vietnamese names. I was super excited to start learning some of the language since it is entirely different from every language I have studied before, and I am something of a linguistics nerd. We…
Literally and Metaphorically the Warmest Welcome to Vietnam
When I wake up in a hotel in a new place, one of my first morning activities is always looking out the window. Sometimes it’s a boring view, and the look is not much more than a glance. Here, in Ho Chi Minh City, I think I spent more like 15 minutes looking. I kept…
Introduction: Julia Brown
Hi! My name is Julia Brown. I am a freshman in the Swanson School of Engineering, majoring in materials science and engineering. I want to pursue graduate school and go into research after I complete my degree. I am from Pittsburgh, PA. Throughout high school and the years before, I trained extensively in ballet. In…