Dad, Is this blog better?

Obviously, today was amazing. I woke up to my roommate slamming doors and screaming on the phone at 6 am, such a pleasing "alarm". Breakfast was not my favorite today because most of it was pork and shrimp which I do not eat, so i settled for a good old American egg sandwich and donuts. Today we did not go to language class and instead started straight for VSIP for two company visits, VSIP and II-VI. II-VIis incorporated in VSIP so we did not have to travel/had two presentations in the same room.  VSIP is an industrial park that is constantly expanding. I was not too familiar with what a park was but I learned a lot from the briefing, however, II-VI was more interesting. David Baker, the chief engineer, presented the corporation to us. I have spoken a lot about the companies and less about my experience so I am going to try and switch the style. Basically, the company makes optics technologies and are experts in not only expanding to different countries but also their products. As an American, the tour of the company was an eye-opening experience. II-VIis mostly a labor intensive with MANY unskilled workers that get trained for each segment of production. It was a lot different than the US because of how cheap the labor is and how easy it is to hire the people. It was difficult to see some of the work environment that these people work in. Most of the workers come straight off the farm and are fed once a day during their shift and it is definitely nice but personally I would have a difficult time knowing the people that work for me barely eat and basically do assembly line work with minimum wage pay. As I write this, they are still very nice to their workers by giving them nice bonuses, letting them visit their families/paying for their transportation. It really is just a completely different working environment which was different and hard to wrap my mind around. Daivd Baker was super nice and knowledgeable as well. It was a really awesome experience and cool to see how a corporation is run there. 

After VSIP, we had a really nice chinese lunch. It started to rain really hard right after we got to the restuarant. The service is unbelievable here. We had to walk maybe two steps after we ate to get the bus and the workers from the restaurant walked us two steps with umbrellas, it was really nice. We then went to the Eastern International University which was in VSIP II and it was a gorgeous campus with very energetic kids that were really fun. For all these places, we left HCMC and it was a really interesting place. There were lots of little shops. To imagine the town, we saw water buffalo getting walked on the side of the road, it was neat! Today was not nearly as hot as yesterday. Yesterday I sweat in places that I did not know I could have. I finished a 5 liter water bottle in one day, it was insane. The bottle was 80 cents and I swear I have seen it at Costco for probably 8 dollars. 

To conclude our group is meshing together so much more. I did not know what to expect going with 13 other kids who I do no know. The bus rides today were so fun,  we played so many games and were just enjoying each others presence. I love this group, there are all different personalities which balances out the entire group. I am excited for more games tomorrow and enjoy this amazing country with some amazing people. Over and out and of course I miss you mom, dad, and elan.