Well...the tip is apparently you don't...unless you come with much preparation or do it as part of a program. Anyway, so last night around 9pm, we get a knock on our door and lo and behold it was a police officer!!!! how um, not expected. My friend (a local) and I talked to the guy for at least an hour about my living situation and he actually seemed pretty nice though very law abiding. He stated that he couldn't allow us to break the law even though I seemed harmless, was doing research, and probably wouldn't try to stay here illegally. However, apparently there is a law that no foreigners can
live with a local Vietnamese individual unless you 1) fulfill proper
requirements and paperwork to establish the house as a location as such
2) register the foreigner with the district and city police. I think the reasoning is so they can keep track of foreigners and he stated there are a lot of people from many countries coming and "taking jobs and overstaying their visas." In addition it is important to preserve areas that aren't foreigner heavy and it is obvious that I did not blend into my neighborhood.
We tried to plead if we could get paperwork filed to fix the problem but it didn't work and he told me I had to leave by the next day. Talk about a time crunch!!!! My mom tried to talk to him the next morning to let me stay but to no avail although she managed to get a time extension til the weekend which basically cancels my Sapa trip. Sadness. I'm pretty calm now and I'm sure that once I find a place (house hunting tonight wasn't successful) and I FINALLY get settled then I will laugh about being found out about the police on day 2 of my stay here.
In even funnier news, I think I got asked on my first date. har har har! I don't think I am interested (though he isn't too bad looking) and he's currently my neighbor. maybe moving will make it a little bit less awkward if I am not interested. I think his dad is hoping his son can marry a Viet Kieu and pushed him to hang out with me. How flattering...
