The 2012 International Collegiate Agricultural Leadership (I-CAL) program started in San Francisco, Calif., with orientation and briefings on varies industries on Sunday, May 20. Everyone got to meet with each other and get familiar with one another as well as learn about the industries that we will be learning about while in Southeast Asia. During our training we learned about industries ranging from palm oil, aquaculture, rice, poultry, corn and much more before leaving from San Francisco International Airport at 1:30 a.m. Monday.

We had a quick stop in Hong Kong, followed by a layover in Singapore. From there we made our connection to Vietnam, where we have met with our overseas contacts from the U.S. Grains Council. After making it to the hotel, we had our first meal of Vietnamese noodles before doing a quick debrief of our day. Our entire luggage made it safe and sound and we are all very excited for the next few days in Vietnam before heading to Malaysia! Tomorrow we will start off with a meeting with representatives from the U.S. Embassy, followed with a tour of a local feed mill later in the day.