Fulbright Briefings + Ha Long Bay

Last week we had "briefings" with the Fulbright Program and various people from the Embassy.  From my notes, this is what we learned:

The Government is probably monitoring my emails, blogs, and any internet activity I do for the first couple of weeks, just to check me out (so no email sexting!).  Then, most likely, they will leave me alone (with occasional check-ups) once they see I am just doing my film studies project.  If you're reading this, I sure do love Vietnam and their government!! (Also, I have been having problems accessing this site...)
Crossing the street is the most dangerous thing you can do and if not careful, you WILL die.
If you eat anything off the street, you WILL die.  (The Embassy doctor was a bit dramatic, but I guess he was trying to stress the importance of eating clean food).
If you go shopping for food on the street, you WILL die or get multiple viruses, bacterial infections, medical conditions, etc.
You will have a sore throat for the duration of your grant because of the pollution/smog/dust.  (This was good and bad news for me - I didn't know if I was getting sick with a cold but as it turns out, it is just the dust.  However, I have a damn sore throat for 10 months...).
If you do eat dog or cat, don't eat the brain because that is where rabies is concentrated the most.  (Good to know).
Presently, there are zero American political prisoners in Vietnam.  Hopefully, it will stay that way...
Generally, many topics are free to discuss in class (capitalism, democracy (to a point), religion, feminism, sexuality (to a point)) as long as you are not waving signs and/or attempting to organize.  Nevertheless, you should be careful.  Shouldn't be a problem for me because I hate democracy, right Government reader?



I also got to meet the other Fulbrighters and they are a very cool bunch: 3 scholars and 6 students (including me).  One scholar got his PhD from A&M and the other two scholars (they're married) live in Burleson, TX and teach in Texas Wesleyan and Baylor.  Whoop whoop for Texas.  Our topics range from tourism, law, economics, journalism, art (painting), new media (very interesting project on open-source software in Nam), medical equipment, architecture/urban development, and of course, film studies.

The next day we went to visit the Vietnam Maritime University in Haiphong (the 3rd largest city in Vietnam and the largest port in the North) and discussed the University structure in Vietnam.  Basically, it is reversed from the U.S. - The Government controls all of the funding, curriculum, and degrees (a centralized sturcture) as opposed to the schools having most of the control in the US.  Most schools are slowly transitioning to more Western/US curriculum but they still have to be approved by the Vietnamese Government--some schools, like the Maritime University, are copying curriculum in the US, except they remove some classes that are "unnecessary, like American History." There is also that small issue of protecting the freedom of speech of professors.  Minor detail.

After that we drove to Ha Long Bay, took a boat to Cat Ba Island and checked in a hotel:

 We also went "hiking" (well four of us did, the rest decided to chill on the beach) which turned out a bit more of hike/rock climbing up a 3 km mountain.  It was ridiculously hot at the top with the sun but it was well worth it.  Oh and wear mosquito repellent - I got 122 mosquito bites in those 2 hours after getting none in Hanoi.  Everyone who got bit in the city didn't get bit during the hike.


I must have good country-side blood.

top of the mountain

Our hotel with surprisingly bad beds

the easy part of the trail

tony