Past, present, and future

After falling asleep around 4:30 last night, I woke up pretty early around 2:30. I was awake off and on until 6:30 and finally decided to be up for the day. While Pete was in the shower, I learned a very valuable lesson: never trust flatulence while you're sick... I'll leave it at that. Anyway, I had a small breakfast, just some rice, toast with some awesome pineapple spread, and some medicine that worked great for the rest of the day. We took the bus to the Jade Emperor Pagoda, an old Chinese Taoist temple in HCMC. It was amazing to see this beautiful place tucked into the city, almost preserved in time. We each lit incense and placed them in ash to burn. UEF was next for our first Vietnamese cultural lesson from Dr. Phan Anh Tu, Faculty of Cultural Studies at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities. He gave a very in depth talk about Vietnamese people and their history, mainly focusing on before French Colonization. 90% of the people of are Viet, but the remaining 10% consists of over 50 different ethnicities and backgrounds, including the Hmong in the Mekong River delta and the E De (who actually follow the matriarch) in the highlands. No language class today (which is really sad), but we went to lunch and I started gaining my appetite back. We changed back at the hotel and then headed to Glass Egg Digital Media. This is a design company that works in video game artwork, their biggest clients: Microsoft and Sony. Their start was specifically cars; they've done cars for Forza, Need for Speed, Dirt, and many other top level racing games. They've also broken into environments, objects, and some character work. The company functions in a very Googlesque setting: relaxed environment with low lighting, napping is pretty common for artists, and they have a specific person just to organize parties for the employees (I know, pretty sweet). The Vietnamese staff is organized by seven expats including CEO Phil Tran, CFO Steve Reid, and COO Guillaume Monier who gave a tour and talked with us afterward. Phil Tran has an interesting background; his father was a member of the South Vietnamese Navy (presumably high ranking) during the war. Just before the fall/liberation/reunification (I'll discuss that in a later blog) of Saigon, his father realized and end was near. He frantically wrote a letter to friend in the US, LCDR Harry Schelier, USN, ret., asking him to take his family, including 12 year old Phil, as refugees. Luckily, their family was flown out of the city one week prior to April 30, and they went to Guam along with the thousands of other refugees from Saigon. From there, they flew to Camp Pendleton, and then were taken in by LCDR Schelier (Side note... His first meal in America: KFC and pizza. His first question of the meal: where's the rice?). This was a story of a very lucky man; there were many others in his family's position that could not leave and were forced into "reeducation camps" and they're legacy suffers to this day. On to something lighter. Steve Reid explained to us that HCMC is a very good place for entrepreneurs; the group of expats also own a very successful nightclub: Lush, which I've heard is excellent. After our visit, we went back to the hotel to relax for a bit and then had our measurement for suits taken ($165 max, hand tailored, done before we leave, can't be beat). Everyone took a pretty solid nap and rolled out quickly for dinner, Korean BBQ, which was so good. This also gave us some time to talk with a few students at UEF who were very cool. Afterwards, we had an awesome time Lush. A huge thanks to our friends at Glass Egg; everyone had a great time. It now late again and I should really get some sleep. I'm feeling better and ready for another great day in HCMC. Good night!