Day 3

Today was our first day not going to the school; only site visits. We started off our morning with a presentation on Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park and then moved on to a presentation on II-VI Vietnam - a company based in Pittsburgh which made it more interesting. Even more coincidental is the fact that the speaker's daughter just finished her freshman year at Pitt. In between, we had a really good snack of seafood spring rolls and hawaiin pizza, fresh fruits and different deserts. We then moved on to a site tour of one of II-VI's factories where they make lenses. All of the engineering references meant nothing to me but I found it interesting to see how a factory works and where things we use in America come from. I found in somewhat depressing even though the man giving the tour said all of the workers were "happy". But while they were working with glass, no one was wearing safety protection and the whole facility was so bland, white walls, white floors, etc. I just can't imagine sitting there for hours on end every day doing the same task over and over and over again. It does not seem like a good way to live to me but i guess that they are okay about it because they are supporting their families. One other interesting note is that after their first year of operations, they allowed people to go home for the really big holiday and once it was over, 30% of their workers did not come back. Apparently, these workers come in from far away and leave their families for months at a time. Then, when they finally get their one week break, they decide to extend it for a month or two until coming back to the city to look for another job for the next 10 months or so. The cycle then repeats itself. II-IV however, has found incentives for their workers to come back and only a few years later had every single worker show up after the holiday.
For lunch we went to a buffet that had really good chicken on a skewer with green peppers and onions. We also found out the meaning of 35 and 75. We then went to Glass Egg Digital Media for a very short presentation. The whole thing was pretty disappointing because it could have been really interesting but the presenters clearly did not think we were worth their time. They ran through the slide show and then gave us the shortest answers for all of our questions. It was unfortunate because if the two other CEO's were there, Professor Berman said they would have been much more involved and the whole thing would have been a lot more relaxed and conversational.
By the time we got back to the hotel we all were exhausted but wanted to go shopping so we planned on taking an hour nap because it was only 4. The next thing I know, our doorbell is being rung by Matt and Kyle and its 8. I was still so tired. By 9 or so, we managed to get all the girls together and awake enough to take a cab ride to the Hard Rock Cafe. Once again, the whole ride was less than a dollar. The 4 of us had a really fun and relaxing lady's night complete with delicious cheese burgers and fries and a live band from LA. It was impossible to talk at the beginning because the band was so loud but by the time our food got to us she had stopped singing and we were able to talk and enjoy our dinner. We left around 11:30, got back and went to sleep.