I can't believe I'm one week away from my departure!!! My flight leaves on February 7th at 6am from Lincoln. I then fly to Chicago, where I'll have a 5 hour layover before hopping on my 16 some hour flight to Hong Kong, upon which time, I'll board one more flight to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam! My excitement is building and we're working on getting last minute things in order. I got the final list of participants, and I've been talking to them over facebook. Everyone seems nice so far, and one is fluent in Vietnamese, which will help all the rest of us out, for sure.
Things around here have been crazy. When I went to apply for my International Driver's License from AAA, I realized that my driver's license, issued by the State of Nebraska, will expire on my 21st birthday, April 27. So, I'll be who knows where in Vietnam with an expired ID! We quickly rushed to the DMV to try to get a state ID card, but that too would expire upon my birthday. Apparently, there is nothing that can be done because the 21st birthday has all these special rules that make it hard to apply for a new license early. Anyway, I decided to apply for a US Passport ID card (which will only get me in and out of Canada and Mexico) for a second form of ID. SIT has told us that we shouldn't ship important documents to Vietnam, so who knows how I'll ever get it (maybe through the Embassy?) Fortunately, TSA has told me that they typically accept licenses that have been expired for up to a year in the airports. Whew!
I found a mosquito net that I am going to be taking along. Its a popup that can be folded into a really small bag, which will be great for travel. It's a little small, but what's four months, right?
And here I am in it!
Mom thought the flowers right next to me would be a nice touch to this otherwise flattering photo.
I'm done with all of my vaccinations, and today I bought an electric converter so that I can plug everything in over there. Mom helped me find a bunch of really cool gifts to give to my homestay families and various people I meet along the way. The bigger gifts are name brand shirts and perfumes, but the smaller gifts are more Nebraska-specific, including playing cards, bison jerky, a book of Nebraska photos, some slivers of the state rock, etc. I'm sure people will be pleased with them. The few things I still need to get/do are: get an external portable hard drive, soak my clothes in mosquito repellent, get all my meds squared away, update my phone for global use...who am I kidding, I'll think of a million more things before I leave!
One last nice thing: I went to visit May, the seamstress we use, who is from Vietnam, and she has kindly notified her family that I will be coming soon. They own a restaurant (BBQ?) there and May says that they are expecting me to come and visit! May has one niece that she is particularly interested in having me meet, so I will email her very soon. I took a photo with May so that I could give it to her family once I am there!
That's all for now! I'm getting really excited and I can't wait to get over there! Chao!
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