auf Wiedersehen, Viet Nam.

Today, let's get out of Vietnam, foreal. The last day and half of the trip consisted of a lot of shopping, eating and savoring our last moments in Nam. Highlights include managing to communicate with the laundry place down the street without using any words, drinking at a bar called 1/2 Man, 1/2 Noodle in the complete darkness due to a blackout of the entire street, and getting season 3 of 30ROCK and seasons 1-5 of The Office for a grand total of $11 USD. Luckily our drive to Noi Bai airport was only an hour and 45 minutes long, and even MORE luckily, hoards of Vietnamese teenagers whipped out their cell phones to take pictures of me in line. Clearly, I was not the only caucasian in the airport, so I attribute the paparazzi treatment to my Wayfarer glasses. Clearly, they thought I was Harry Potter. Clearly, I miss this country like WOAH.

Transit from Hanoi to Berlin was relatively uneventful save the run in with the entire eastern European delegation to the Deaf Olympics (no, I'm not joking) and OH-the fact that I missed my connection in Frankfurt. Upon arriving at the reticketing center for Lufthansa, I was told there was no flight open until 10pm that night. It was 7:30 in the morning. Thus, I became a standby passenger for every flight that left from that point on. Fortunately, I got on a flight an hour and half later AND I got to see the first three letters of my last name on the screen. Which totally made up for arriving in Berlin to find my bags were still in Bangkok...NOT. I remained strong, held back my tears, graciously accepted the overnight care package, somehow managed the bus and train system, and FINALLY rang the buzzer at Kufsteinestraße 16, my home for the next 10 weeks. There, I met my host mom Sabine (she's GREAT, more on her later), drank some tea, took a fatty nap, and then met up with some kids for dinner/drinks, then back to bed to sleep off the jetlag. But things can't be that easy, I'm abroad, right? Right.

Before leaving to go get dinner, I was equipped with a set of 5 different keys to use to enter the building and eventually my room. One for the front door of the building, one for the elevator (HELL YEAH) and 3 for the door to Sabine's apartment. I arrived back at Kufesteinestrasse 16 at 12:45. Two hours later, after ringing the doorbell 5oo plus times and trying the keys even more times, holding in my blatter like my life depended on it, I finally woke up not Sabine, but the downstairs neighbors who thought I was breaking into the apartment. The Frau from the floor below came upstairs, I explained the sitch, and then she proceeded to do in 5 seconds which I could not even accomplish in an hour. She opened the door with the turn of ONE key. Needless to say, I got a lesson on how to open the door as soon as I woke up the next morning. MLIA.