i just wrote a bunch, highlighted it and bumped the space bar. there is nothing like that feeling in the pit of your stomach when you delete something. the computer god's collaborate and make your life miserable.

borrowed a friend's motorcycle today and headed all over looking for a place that makes shoes.

i can't easily buy a shoe here that fits me and proper footwear is very important for teaching at the university. i normally wear shoes that i bought at home but those shoes are quickly fading in the rainy season's humidity. i needed something new.

i did what i always do when i'm looking for a place new. i drive around the town stopping to ask just about everyone where i could get shoes made.

conversations normally progress like this:

'where can i get shoes made?'

'what?'

'where can i get shoes made?'

'shoes?'

'yea'

'i don't know. hey, frank (though i've yet to meet a man named frank, i do like to use the name), where can this guy get shoes made?'

frank: 'i don't know. over there.'

he'll then point in a general direction which i will take. i ask another person. sometimes they point back to where frank is and i head in a slightly different direction. eventually, someone will say the name of a store but they're not sure where it is. then you head in a direction and ask where the store is. someone eventually knows where to go.

the store was perfect. they had a giant book with hundreds of pages of foot outlines and measurements. i picked out a style i liked and they put the book on the white tile floor. they opened to a page that was blank and i stood on the same binding that hundreds of people have stood on before. she outlined my foot very carefully and then measured around the ball of the foot and my arch. she wrote everything down and then the style of shoe i wanted.

four dollars and one week later i will have a new pair of shoes tailored perfectly to my feet.

this is one of my favorite songs to sing. i translated it quickly and it’s not the best quality, but it’s the meaning i derive from the song. i don’t do the song justice.

one must cry out when they sing this song. this song writhes in misery.

agh! the pain! the anguish! the beauty!



To Fade

by: Trinh Cong Son

Embrace the night heart
The moon has just returned
I remember the errant leg
So short-lived!
The spring of life, but already old,
One day to stand at the shore
Life is like the wind

I have no one
The road home is so long
Every night far from her
A bowl of peppery wine
One life I drink of
To let the world wait

I return to occupy each day
I see the sun shine
I see the rain fly
Many people return again
Return again to the bottom of the sky
To make clouds… drift…

Go home!
What does the bare road have?
Green hair for how many seasons
Many times when…
From the midnight garden, a step home
Whose feet are so light?
The soul so many years ago.

I return to occupy each day
I see the sun shine
I see the rain fly
Many people far away return again
Return again to the bottom of the sky
To make clouds… drift…

this is one of my favorite songs to sing. i translated it quickly and it’s not the best quality, but it’s the meaning i derive from the song. i don’t do the song justice.

one must cry out when they sing this song. this song writhes in misery.

agh! the pain! the anguish! the beauty!



To Fade

by: Trinh Cong Son

Embrace the night heart
The moon has just returned
I remember the errant leg
So short-lived!
The spring of life, but already old,
One day to stand at the shore
Life is like the wind

I have no one
The road home is so long
Every night far from her
A bowl of peppery wine
One life I drink of
To let the world wait

I return to occupy each day
I see the sun shine
I see the rain fly
Many people return again
Return again to the bottom of the sky
To make clouds… drift…

Go home!
What does the bare road have?
Green hair for how many seasons
Many times when…
From the midnight garden, a step home
Whose feet are so light?
The soul so many years ago.

I return to occupy each day
I see the sun shine
I see the rain fly
Many people far away return again
Return again to the bottom of the sky
To make clouds… drift…

tomorrow is vietnamese independence day and the air is festive. people are floating around the offices and everything has been, of late, successful. we have a total of three new foreigners working at the university and, because i work in the international relations department, i have been working feverishly in order to set their lives up comfortably.

we need mobile phones. in place of a phone in the home, a mobile phone is actually quite a wise purchase. it costs just about as much as a normal phone but is, well, mobile. we drive around, look at different models and eventually buy the cheap one.

we need bicycles. if we don't have a bicycle, we can't really go anywhere. sure, you could walk places, but strutting down sunny streets isn't my idea of fun. you're going to sweat enough, spend as much time as possible inside.

we need home furnishings. everyone wants their room to feel a bit like home. i've accomplished this by carefully leaving my dirty clothes hanging from a number of tables and chairs, thus creating what is termed the 'dorm room effect'. people want to buy rugs and things for the walls and cushions and so on. we drive and find and barter and buy.

thus is my life. tomorrow is a day off but i'll probably take advantage of the empty offices and the fast internet connection to get some serious work done.

our foreign community here doubled almost overnight. the dog doesn't quite know what to do.