We’re getting down to business now that we’re here — not easy as it requires an adjustment for us all, and we’ve been pretty structure-free for a few months, given all the vicissitudes of travel. That said, structure is precisely what we crave, on some basic level. Bill has, for the most part, mastered his technology needs, and Fiona and Malcolm are doing four hours a day of intensive Italian.

As for me, I go to the studio every morning, where I block everything out and work for as long as I can.

There’s a settlement on the other side of the wall from where we are living — protected here on campus — and apparently the little stone dwellings house families who have handed down squatting rights over generations. Each time we walk back to the main gate (we’re at the other end of campus) Malcolm asks if we can walk through the settlement, as the people are, well, nicer there.

As we travel, we are reading and discarding. It says something about pre-travels life that I’m reading New Yorkers from October, even as Jessica is reading the new issues on the Kindle. I’m leaving old issues in our hotel room, assuming they will end up for sale at the Nha Trang market by tonight.

Hmmmmmmm… cupcake flavored? Cupcake man flavored? Cupcake man with a staw in his head flavored? Or even — wait for it — rootbeer float man flavored? How in the world would you know that this is Puccho Energy Drink flavored by looking at the front of the package?

Woe is Ruby. Little Maude—she of little brain but big heart—has a clear strategy to deter us: she has been planting odd pieces of clothing in odd places: a gardening glove in Bill’s closet? Socks where socks have never been before? Wise souls that they are, they also stole all the covers from Fiona this morning, as it was ZERO (that’s fahrenheit) when we woke at 5:30. Saying goodbye will be hard: they will move down the road, and spend their days here at Winterhouse, where they can steal all the covers they want, but alas, with no children beneath them. We will stock up today on dog treats, and plan on scheduling occasional video chats. Woof.