Today was all about economics on various scales: from broad geopolitical trends to local port logistics to bartering at a local market. We started the day with a visit to Cat Lai terminal, an absolutely massive shipping port on the coast of HCMC. Visiting this port provided a very authentic glimpse into the economic engine…

Today was a strictly cultural and historical day. We started off learning about Buddhist theory and visiting a pagoda. I am a cradle Catholic, so it was very interesting to contrast Buddhist philosophy with what I have grown up believing and still believe in. From what I have learned, both today and from a plethora…

Today, we resumed our regularly scheduled programming with a site visit to Coherent Ltd. Coherent is a materials engineering firm that develops, manufactures, and distributes laser components and other materials such as thermoelectric parts and ceramics. I believe their company symbolizes the good and bad parts of globalization into Vietnam. On one hand, the emerging…

Today, we took a break from globalization and economics to take a purely cultural visit to the Mekong Delta, and it was packed with fun memories. After a 2 hour bus ride, we arrived at a dock where we hopped on a boat. We traveled along the Mekong River. If we wanted to, we could…

After a full business week in Việt Nam, I’m going through video games withdrawal. Okay, well, not really. But if I did, I would have gotten my fix by learning about the work Glass Egg does at our site visit today. Glass Egg is an art studio that helps develops models for various video games….

Being in this wonderful town with all these amazing people, my faith in humanity is very high. However, if you need your faith in humanity restored, let me tell you about Vina Capital Foundation (VCF). First, some context is needed. Vietnam has a long and complex history, marked by both resilience and rich cultural traditions….

We started today at one of my 2 favorite universities in the world, UEF. Professor Minh was kind enough to give a talk about the role of sustainability and green transformation in the economy of Vietnam. I really appreciated his emphasis on how not only does sustainability fill a moral obligation to preserve the environment…

Today we had our first Vietnamese language class, and the UEF student who was helping us with our fledgling Vietnamese skills assigned us our Vietnamese name. My new name, Thắng, means “win” or “victory” in Vietnamese, in correlation with the meaning of my English name (Nicholas) — “victory of the people”. This experience was definitely…

After 2 connecting flights totaling 22 hours, 7 hours of layovers, 2 movies, 4 episodes of Black Mirror, pages after pages of some books, and a plethora of airplane meals, I have arrived in Ho Chi Minh City. And, not surprisingly, it is quite, quite different than Pittsburgh. One of the most obvious cultural differences…