Saturday morning update

Me and Jennie, my roommate/apparel trainee


We finally had Vietnamese food last night!!

Phở24 is a fast-ish food chain that serves Vietnam's signature dish, phở . Pho is rice noodle soup in a scallion-y broth. You can get it at pretty much any Pan-Asian restaurant in the US... I tried it @ my spot in Cumberland RI before I left home. It's served with the garnishes like bean sprouts, basil leaves, etc., on the side, with just meat and noodles in the broth. It was really good! A lot of Vietnamese people eat this on the street for breakfast. There are a ton of phở carts, too. After dinner we got massages- 70-minutes for 170,000 Dong, tip included. That's less than 10 bucks. I am Soooooo relaxed
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I NEED TO TAKE MORE PICS I'M JUST SO BUSY LOOKING!!!

From my journal
Jul8:
"I am impressed by"
1- The construction workers here. They have hard hats, but I don't see a lot of tools, yet they're digging in the street! Hand shovels? Flip flops?! Interesting.



2- Traffic. You ever seen a baby fall and stumble and miss bumping his head on the corner of a table by just about a quarter of an inch? That's what HCMC traffic feels like. Most stoplights have just one color-- red. They skipped the yellow and green, and arrows, etc. It's amazing to watch the waves of mopeds dodging and swerving so closely. The aerial view must look like the mixing of cake batter (am I hungry again?!) as you fold in the lumps. -- Kim reports that it was Garret A. Morgan who invented the stoplight.

3- The ability to pile trash in small sculptures on the street. "Oh! Rogue street art; I wonder who made these salvage sculptures!", I thought. Then after another block of seeing this little piles on the street I realized, you idiot, that's not public art, it's trash. Duh.

What I've been doing
Mornings- Get in car to Development Center at the factory, check email and touch base with bosses.
-Powerpoint presentations/conversations on the different functions within the development center
Lunch at the canteen
Afternoons- Walking through the factory line with one of the commercialization directors. WOW! More on this later. I have mixed feelings (always the emo. reaction first) and my mind is also boggled. I like being on the factory floor.

I will be able to post more/do more now that I'm getting over the jetlag!! YAY!