Насчёт поездки поговорим позже; пока что я понемногу собираю вещи.

Насчёт is a preposition meaning about / concerning / regarding. After насчёт, Russian normally uses the genitive case, so поездка becomes поездки.

• dictionary form: поездка = trip
• genitive singular: поездки

So насчёт поездки means about the trip.

A learner may also notice that насчёт often sounds slightly more conversational than very neutral о поездке.

In this sentence it is written as one word: насчёт.

This is the standard spelling when it functions as the preposition meaning about / concerning.

Do not confuse it with older or less common combinations involving на счёт in other meanings, such as literally onto an account in banking contexts.

Here, only насчёт is correct.

Поговорим is the perfective future of поговорить, meaning something like we’ll talk or we’ll discuss.

Russian uses the perfective here because the speaker means a single future conversation/result, not an ongoing process.

• говорим = we are talking / we talk
• будем говорить = we will be talking
• поговорим = we will talk, have a talk

So Насчёт поездки поговорим позже means We’ll talk about the trip later, with the idea of postponing that conversation until a later time.

Russian often leaves out subject pronouns when the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

Поговорим has the ending -им, which here means we. So мы is understood automatically.

You could say мы поговорим позже, but it is usually unnecessary unless you want extra emphasis or contrast.

Позже means later.

It is related to поздний = late, and in many contexts it is the comparative form, literally later. In everyday Russian, however, позже very commonly just functions as the normal adverb later.

So:

• поговорим позже = we’ll talk later

Пока что means for now / for the time being / as of now.

Compared with plain пока, пока что often sounds a bit more explicit or natural when you are contrasting now with later.

In this sentence, the contrast is:

• later we’ll discuss the trip
• for now I’m packing little by little

So пока что helps organize the speaker’s priorities in time.

Понемногу means little by little, bit by bit, or gradually.

It suggests that the speaker is not doing the action all at once, but in small portions over time.

So:

• я понемногу собираю вещи = I’m gradually packing my things / I’m packing little by little

This word is very common in everyday speech.

Yes, собирать often means to gather / collect, but with вещи it very commonly means to pack one’s things.

So собирать вещи is a natural expression for:

• gathering your belongings together
• getting packed
• packing up

Depending on context, it can mean either physically collecting things into one place or actually packing them into bags/suitcases. In this sentence, with поездка nearby, the packing meaning is especially clear.

Собираю is imperfective, which fits an action in progress or repeated over a period of time.

The speaker is describing what they are doing for now, and понемногу also suggests an ongoing process. That is why imperfective is natural:

• я собираю вещи = I’m packing / I’m gathering my things
• я соберу вещи = I will pack my things

So the sentence contrasts:

• future completed discussion: поговорим позже
• current ongoing activity: я понемногу собираю вещи

The semicolon links two closely related parts of the sentence while still separating them more strongly than a comma would.

The two parts are:

• Насчёт поездки поговорим позже
• пока что я понемногу собираю вещи

They are clearly connected in meaning, but each part is a fairly complete idea. A period would also be possible in many contexts. The semicolon simply gives a smooth written transition: we’ll discuss that later; for now, here’s what I’m doing.

Yes, you could.

Both can mean We’ll talk about the trip later, but there is a small nuance:

• о поездке = neutral, plain about the trip
• насчёт поездки = regarding the trip / as for the trip, often a bit more conversational or topic-framing

So насчёт поездки can feel like as for the trip... or regarding the trip.... In everyday speech, that works very naturally here.

Yes, Russian word order is fairly flexible, though changing it can shift emphasis.

The given sentence sounds natural because it presents the topic first and then the comment:

• Насчёт поездки поговорим позже = As for the trip, we’ll talk later.

You might also hear:

• Поговорим насчёт поездки позже
• Я пока что понемногу собираю вещи

But the original order is very natural and clear. It foregrounds the trip as the topic and then contrasts later with for now.