My flight leaves in just over 11 hours. There are still a few things left to do, but I guess I’ll leave them for the morning.

I’m considering getting up at 6am and doing one last bike ride along the bay trail. It seems like a good idea, since I’m going to be sitting on airplanes for nearly 24 hours.

Yesterday I stopped by my bank and asked if they could sell me some Vietnamese currency. They only had $18 worth, so I bought it all. I now have 255,000₫ in my wallet. The Vietnamese currency is called “dong” (actually: đồng, which probably looks like a mess if you don’t have the right font packs installed on your computer). Aparently, this is just about half the average Vietnamese monthly salary.

Today I broke out my suitcase (which is really combination back-pack and wheelie bag) and took it into the “loading zone” in the living room. My cat immediately decided that it was the most comfortable looking thing in the apartment.

It wasn’t until I saw him in there that I realized how big he is, or how small the bag is. I guess it’s a little of both.

Over the course of the day I did laundry and packed. Eventually the bag was completely full of clothing and toiletries. Then I realized I hadn’t packed any extra shoes. I hate packing shoes. I wear a size 14EEEEE (yes, that’s five E), so a pair of my shoes takes up about 20% of that bag’s capacity.

On a side note: I was digging around in my closet and came up with a pair of shoes I had no idea I owned. I really like them, and plan on wearing them for the flight tomorrow (they’re slip-ons).  So in all, I have three pairs of massive shoes I want to take. I opted for a second, small bag that I can check. It will only contain shoes. There’s something extremely un-masculine about all of this.

Around 8:30, with packing 90% complete, I met up with Ginger and Sarah at the local pizza-and-pub, Lanesplitters.

It was a nice little going-away meet-up, and I’m hoping the beer will help me sleep.

I just got back from picking up up my passport with its shiny new Vietnam visa.

Now, I’m not going to let myself freak out about it too much, but the visa is only good until March 19. I specifically wrote March 26 on my visa application. I wouldn’t be too worried about it if I were just going to be hanging out in Vietnam for a week with an expired visa. The problem is that we had planned to come back from Laos just a day or two before heading to Japan on March 26.

I’m just going to put this out of mind for the time being and assume I can work out the details at some official office in Hanoi.

Last night I fell asleep listening to my Vietnamese lessons. I didn’t get very far. I’ve been staying up really late for the last week or two in order to get some work done before I leave. Most nights I haven’t been asleep before 3am. The problem is that for the last two weeks there’s been construction going on in the basement of my building (directly beneath my floor). The guys start working around 7:45am, so I’ve been averaging just under five hours of sleep a night.

I’m not sure what they are doing down there, but aside from what sounds (and feels) like pounding on the building’s structural supports with sledgehammers, they are clearly cutting the concrete floor up to update the drainage system.

So I didn’t get a lot of Vietnamese practice in last night, but I did go through three lessons today on my way to get the visa.

The fun thing about Vietnamese is that the English pronoun “you” doesn’t exist. Rather, I should say it exists in four (at least) forms, depending on the gender and age of the person you are talking to. So there is a different “you” for an older man, an older woman, a younger man and a younger woman (“ông,” “bà,” “anh,” and “cô” respectively). A quick glance at the Vietnamese pronouns entry on Wikipedia shows just how much more confusing it can get.

At least now I can say “Excuse me. Do you understand English? I understand a little Vietnamese, but not very well. I’m American.” More importantly, I can say “yes” and “no,” as well as “hello” and “good-bye.” I’m just working on “Please let me back into your country. I don’t know why your consulate screwed up my visa.”

Well, it still hasn’t really sunk in that a week from now I’ll be in Vietnam.

Tomorrow morning I go to the Vietnam Consulate in San Francisco to pick up my entry/exit visa. I went in last week and gave them my passport, a separate passport-size photo, and $90. I suspect the price of the visa changes depending on how long you’ll be there, and whether you’ll need multiple entries.

Last Friday I got my Typhoid shot and prescriptions for Doxcycline Hyclate (anti-Malaria), Ciprofloxacin (antibiotic) and Lorazepam (sweet, sweet anti-anxiety).

I have a little work to do before bed, but before I fall asleep I’m going listen to a couple of Pimsleur Basic Vietnamese lessons. So far I can’t really say much of anything aside from “Excuse me.” For some reason, Vietnamese doesn’t stick in my head the way Japanese does. I think because Vietnamese is a tonal language, so it’s not just about remembering new words, but also how to intonate them.