-^-for posterity-^-

once again, i find myself in long xuyen.

the bus pulled into town last night just about supper time. we drove down the wet streets under grey skies with our legs feeling the brunt of a five hour journey. i jumped on a bicycle-taxi with all of my bags and we slowly made our way to the university.

as we drove, an incredible thing happened. being pulled by a middle-aged man on a bicycle with at least 100 pounds of bags makes for a slow trip. i sit off of the side of the cart that he is pulling and watch people. yesterday, as i pulled into town, i was greeted by just about everyone.

the lady who sells bread waved to me. the girls at the coffee shop smiled. the man who has the long, tube-like dog waved. as we approached the university, a man i have never met who is in his 60's and sells things by the side of the road looked at me with amazement and said, 'it's been quite a long time since we've seen you here!' i had never talked to the man before in my life.

while this beautiful place can obviously survive and thrive without my presence, it was nice to know that people missed me.

i spent this day trying to reclaim my room from the thousands of brown pieces of gecko remains. they stick to everything. i swept the room out twice and then mopped it down thoroughly. i reclaimed my balcony from the spiders and the dust. i even made a stab at taking my bathroom back from a few months of neglect.

i went down to the local wal-mart and bought things from the hundreds of vendors. (nope. no sam walton in sight.) i bought 'hollywood shampoo', which, on the side of the bottle, promised me a chance to actually meet brad pitt. i bought 'spring soap' and 'vim floor cleaner'. it was, all in all, a productive day.

the best greeting i received was from the dog. he has grown into quite an adolescent beast and wouldn't stop jumping all over me and licking my hand. he sat in the room when i was unpacking and simply stared at me for an hour with his gorgeous, almond eyes.

while greetings were wonderful, i dearly miss people at home. why would i put myself through this pain?