Going to Vietnam

so, it's quite some time since my last entry... well, i was busy with all preparations. it doesn't mean i am not busy anymore. just have some time to drop a line or two. it's three weeks from now for me to enter Sout-East Asia. must be really well prepared for the research that i want to do. there's no sense in going there with only a vague idea what to do in the nearest future. i have to know what information i want to get. hue college of medicine and pharmacy and mcnv say they will help me as much as possible. i believe they do. the most difficult is that language barrier. especially when you do qualitative research. what the translator, facilitator, interviewer understands can completely change your data and the conclusions thus. anyways, i am a bit aware of the fact that i can have some problems but in general i don't want to make myself more afraid than it is necessary. if this sentence makes any sense to you...

so, last week, on Tuesday morning actually, I got my first round of vaccinations. The first one was against DTP and the other one against hepatitis A. DTP is actually a coctail of three vaccines. 1. diphteria which means literarily "a pair of leather scrolls" (?) which everyone of us is supposed to get in the childhood (vaccine and not the disease...). however, boosters of the vaccine are recommended to adults because the effectiveness of immunity decreases with age without constant re-exposure. And of course, if you go to the part of the world where the disease has not (yet) been eradicated, it's better to have taken that. 2. tetanus - infection occurs through wound contamination. 3. poliomyelitis (polio) meaning literarily "grey" and reffering to the inflamation of the spinal cord. Well, ok, having learned that I have to admit that I do not even remeber anymore the pain in my arm after DTP and being sick for 2 days... This mornig I received my second round of vaccinations. This time it was hepatitis B (which I am supposed to get 2 times more) and typhoid... And on Monday morning I have an appointment in Leiden to get my first nice shot of rabies vaccine. Oh, yes, and I think I found a nice room to rent. At least for the first month of my stay in Hue. It really costs nothing! $5 for a night and if I want (but I don't think so) for an additional $1 I can have a breakfast. On Friday I am going to The Hauge to collect my visa but I have a vague feeling that I have already said it in my previous entry... It must be excitement.

Well, I am still just getting prepared to go to Vietnam but actually I still do not have any idea how it is going to be and whether everything will go ok. probably not but this is something I will deal with later. There's no need to think about it now. Or using simple quotation of my boyfriend (literally translated from Dutch): there's no dog waiting for that (my worries). I still have to collect a visa in The Hague, buy a backpack/suitcase (?), wait for decisions about bursaries, get a letter about my internship to IB-groep, bring it there, wait for their decision, get the decision of my housing agency about renting my room, get the contract signed with that Vietnamese girl, move my things out of my room, clean it, arrange some place to stay for the first two weeks of March, arrange a room in Hue... uuuufff, there is still so many things to do.