Letter from Khánh Hòa

Letter From Khánh Hòa

I went to bed at a little after 2000 when everyone else đid. So now it ít is almost 0030 and I am stuck on woke. This keyboard has a VN characters setup that is really logical and easy to use  if one only uses Vietnamese but is a pain for pounding out English. You can't turn it off. and have to keep going back and adding or subtracting lêtters.. Phương Trang and husband Thầy Trung took me and QuỳnhTrang's two girls and Ngọc My's three year old cousin that looks like her clone form when Ngọc My was the same age to Nha Trang in Phương's new $50k Toyota Fortuner. It ís pretty plush. It was a shopping trip for the two  women to the Lotte Siêu Thị, a WalMart sort of place. It has two floors and escalators which are new to me. They are like the speed walk belts in some of the big airports but on an incline with rows of bumps so that one can push a cart up and down.The place is employee intensive and there are security guards everywhere. I was beside one while the women were looking at laundry products which are vastly overpriced. He was trying to not stare at me so I greeted him and told him I had done the same thing in a WM in Mỹ. He got a kick out of that and stuck his hand out to shake mine when the women came back..

 After the shopping spree we went down to the beach where Anh, 3, wanted to go down to the water to get her feet wet. QTrang and I walked her tô the water's edge with Anh clinging to our hands and she chickened out at the lást mịnute. I got my own feet wet trying to entice her in. As we walked taking turns carrying Anh- she đidn't want to walk any more- we passed several Russian couples. The women all passed us with angry glares and one of them yelled at us when both Trang and I broke up laughing.

Ngọc My's little cousin, Cherry, is three and looks and acts just like Ngọc My at three in '03 so I wound up carrying hẻr a lot, too. Coming home we went to Trang's (both of them) brother Trang's house for dinner. While there, Kim Anh called and demanded to know why I wasn't home for dinner yet. I had told her I would not be back until after dinner but hey? So I just ate a little bit and we left. When I got home I had to eat again. 

Things are different this time in one respect, Time ís zipping by just as at home and in no time I will be getting on that damned airplane. Because I have been here five weeks Nguyệt is already worrying about the logistics òf getting back to Saì Gòn. I am the only one with a plane ticket back down and Nguyệt is going with Hai on a bus. If I could swap with her for that plane ticket I would. Coming up on the jet she did not get sick once. On the bus she is constantly throwing up. I tried to get her another ticket but all the flights are full.

My people here, all of them, plan excessively for me. I wish they would take their own selves into account, too.They think they are making me as comfortable as possible while in truth they are making me feel I am doing them a terrible disservice.

I do miss you all, but I wish you were here, not that I were there.  Now that Kim Anh and Nguyệt have seen Amelie's face on the screen they want to meet hẻr  in person.

I will be back there too soon, Perhaps I can talk Amelie with me next time.

love

-m3