Day 8: Cutting Class Part 2 - 11.5.15

Today, I woke up to Akhil asking if I was dying. I was coughing like no other. I went to ask Bryan if he had any DayQuil or anything similar, and wound up going to the clinic. In Vietnam, the only place to actually get meds is at the clinic or any pharmacist. So Bryan took Aster and I to a nearby clinic, which was actually a lot nicer than I expected. There were quite a few doctors there, all from different countries, but they were all trained in the States. It turns out that it's a place frequented by a lot of people, both Vietnamese and foreign. Also, going to the clinic meant that I would get to miss class again! Unfortunately, this class is where we would learn to barter, and afterwards would go to Bến Thành Market, a huge marketplace in Ho Chi Minh City.

After getting meds from the pharmacist at the clinic, we went back to the hotel to get ready to go to our company visit. This time, we'd be going to an NGO called VinaCapital. We basically learned a bit about how the company functions, as well as how VinaCapital Foundation, a charity agency, functions. VinaCapital basically just invests in a bunch of smallish businesses. VinaCapital Foundation is a charity agency with a goal of providing medical aid to those in need, as well as funding education of girls living in poverty. The reasoning behind only funding girls was pretty interesting. They said that if one man is educated, then he won't educate anyone else, but if a woman is educated, then she will educate everyone around her.

Later on in the evening, a few of us went out to McDonalds, just to see what it would be like. And it was amazing. I never knew mcnuggets could be that good and I definitely never knew I would see a bun that actually looked as round and perfect as the ones in the commercial. My McDonalds experience will never be the same. After that, we all went out to a karaoke room. The room was a lot more fancy that I expected. Singing karaoke with everyone was definitely a lot of fun.

Look at that bun though