The past two weeks in Vietnam became the part of my life that I will never forget. Through this trip, I was able to make a lot of lifelong friends, both from Pitt and UEF, and experienced many things that I would never have otherwise. I was able to witness how a country goes through…

Today, we got to visit a rare geographic region in South Vietnam, the Mekong Delta. The Mekong Delta is located where the Mekong River flows into the East Sea of Vietnam, and is home to over 1,000 animal species. The tour started as we got on the boat after a 2-hour drive, and we started…

Transportation is a key to development as it can make trades more efficient and help the developing country to import technology, resources, and ideas from developed countries easier. Today, I had a chance to visit Cat Lai Terminal, one of the key ports of Ho Chi Minh City’s port system. The terminal reached the Top…

My mom once said, we are the victims of the tension between two major forces during the Cold War era, the United States and the Soviet Union along with Communist China. Both Vietnam and Korea went through the partition of the country due to intervention of Communist and Democratic forces, making citizens of these countries…

As the economy of Vietnam has been growing significantly, the number of industrial parks and development corporations, such as Vietnam Singapore Industrial Parks and Phu My Hung, has increased to help foreign companies invest in or move to Vietnam easier. Phu My Hung focuses more on the residential life within the town, meanwhile VSIP lets…

When Viet Cong pushed down to South Vietnam during the war, the tunnels played a significant role in eventually capturing Saigon to end the war. These tunnels were used by Viet Cong soldiers as hiding spots, storages, meeting areas, hospitals, and so on. When I actually got to walk down the tunnel, I was surprised…

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)               As Jesus once said, we visited the statue of Jesus in Vung Tau to take a break from the long week of lectures, Vietnamese language classes, and company visits. Even though the walk to get up the…

Today, we started the day a little differently than usual. We visited the U.S. Consulate General of Ho Chi Minh City, which is located on the eight floor of a commercial building. The Consulate, just like the other diplomatic offices, provides consular services and deals with the relationship between the two countries. There is a…

As always, I started the day with Pho and Vietnamese coffee and got on the bus to go take the Vietnamese language class, followed by the lecture on the culture and history of Vietnam. Interestingly, I learned that Vietnamese people count the numbers in the same way as Korean people, which helped me to get…

Today, we had a lecture on contemporary Vietnam and learned about how Vietnam was able to renovate successfully after the Vietnam War. After the war, Ho Chi Minh City was devastated and needed support and investment from both the Vietnamese government and other countries. Fortunately, foreign countries including the United States and South Korea were…

After starting the day 2 with Pho and Vietnamese coffee again, we headed toward UEF to take a lecture about rural development in the Mekong Delta. We learned about how the Mekong Delta has been one of the most important parts of the life to the local people. For example, the Mekong Delta is responsible…

After unexpectedly delicious breakfast at the hotel, we headed toward the UEF to meet our Vietnamese students. I saw a long line of students holding flowers, stickers and cameras, and I started to get a little nervous as Meade warned us to get ready to be aggressively welcomed. As soon as I stepped out of…

Hi everyone. My name is Aaron Moon and I am a freshman in the College of Business Administration. I am intending to double major in Accounting and Business Information System while also pursuing the minor in Economics. With this degree, I plan on becoming a CPA and possibly travel around the world as I work…