i went to go shoe shopping for some undisclosed reason. that will remain a secret unless someone emails me and asks. shoe shopping is quite a chore.
i wear a size twelve shoe in america. in vietnam i will remain shoeless. every room is given one pair of sandals for use in the shower. my sandals are quite small and it’s not because they’ve under compensated. they never met such a giant.
we went to one shoe shop after another looking for suitable shoes. i needed something that would hide my disgustingly ugly toes from admiration. i needed something appropriate. the first shoe shop had nothing in my size. here, (and in europe and in the rest of the world) i would wear a forty six. i asked everyone and their mother where i could find an appropriate shoe in a size forty six. no one seemed to have anything remotely close.
we (jack and i) went to the first shoe shop. we asked what their biggest size was and they pulled out a forty three. we went to the next shop. they said they had a forty four in a couple of styles. i decided that i would try some on. one was a sandal but basically appropriate. i tried it on after squeezing and pushing for a few minutes. i had no socks on as is the custom. it fit but barely. my feet felt like they were in a pressure cooker. it was much hotter than my sandals and much tighter. i felt the very life being squeezed out of my toes. she asked if it hurt and i said with a grimace that it surely did.
the next shop said that they had a forty four also. i decided to try it on. it was a nice shoe with a dull front. i would have been happy buying it but, once again, it didn’t fit. i squeezed it on my foot (without socks) and suffered immeasurably. my feet began to sweat instantly. my body started soon after. i was a sweating, suffering shoe searcher.
we continued our holy, ambiguous quest. none of the other stores had anything close to a forty six. everyone else had forty threes or forty twos.
tomorrow i will go to the nameless event wearing some of jack’s shoes. he said that he bought some sandals that would be appropriate. he will give me his good shoes. i owe him for the fancy shoes i will wear tomorrow and i blame myself for my poor preparation. shoes were not designed for the mekong delta.
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