-^-for posterity-^-

new years celebration. we ate outside constantly attacked by mosquitoes from the air and red ants from the land. it was a wonderful dinner.

afterwards jack, charles (an older scottish man who’s doing research here for his doctorate) and a large group from the agriculture department went to have a small party in one of their sheds.

these sheds house large tanks of water full of all types of fish. they’re doing experiments on them that i didn’t bother to understand. i’m sure lots of poking and prodding. the tanks are blue like candy and are as high as my bellybutton. the fish swim and dart in the dusty water. there was a turtle in one bucket that walked around aimlessly. his webbed paddles couldn’t grip the plastic bottom well.

we had three watches among the group of about ten of us. one watch was ten minuets fast, the other ten minutes slow and the third somewhere in between. we chose to follow the middle watch.

at midnight charles shouted, “happy 2003!” and we all stood up and shouted. charles, jack and i started to sing, “let old acquaintances be forgot and…” something else. i sure didn’t know the words but knew the tune quite well. our vietnamese friends quickly picked up the tune and sang loudly, without words.

we sat down and soon went to bed.

new years are a peculiar event. nothing really changes and it all feels like it should. today i feel as i did yesterday.

in any case, happy new year to all.