-^-for posterity-^-

home is where most of your clothes are. i’m back home.

today jack and i strolled around long xuyen watching everything. people’s stares followed us like late afternoon shadows. it really is nice to be back.

we got our haircut today and it was quite an ordeal. the barbershop is equipped with eight red chairs with eight middle aged barbers lounging in them. four chairs face one large mirror and the other four chairs face a mirror along the opposite wall.

a very large man with a crew cut and a cigarette hanging limply from his mouth decided he would cut my hair. he hopped out of the char and fastened a large towel around my neck with a large metal pin. it was so tight that i could feel my own pulse.

i sat looking at myself in the mirrors. i could see jack sitting behind me and we both smirked at each other. the two large mirrors facing each other created a succession of reflections. they were slightly warped though and as you looked further and further back into the reflections things became more and more obscure. about three reflections back i looked like quite a fat man.

after giving sign-language instructions (my vocabulary for barbershops is limited in vietnamese) the man set off with the cigarette still slowly burning in his mouth. his stomach rubbed against my shoulders as he circled me chopping, snipping and buzzing. he finished and i looked like i was a twelve year old boy. i smiled, said he did a wonderful job and jack and i headed off again.