Friday

We arrived in Hồ Chí Minh City six months ago today. It's difficult to decide whether it's seemed like a long or short six months. It's certainly been exciting. We’ve done plenty. We've traveled to Hong Kong, Macau, and India. I've been to some notable places within Vietnam, including the distant northern capital, and Sunshine's traveled to more of them for work. I've grown very comfortable with the local traffic and constant noise, acclimated to the food and shopping. I've learned a lot. On the flip side, I've endured patches were I've missed home more than usual--whether due to spending my first full holiday season abroad or the sheer boggling weight of the world between me and my former life, I can't really tell. I'm more plugged into this city than I was in Monterrey. It's so easy for me to get to the post office, say, or the grocery store, or about three dozen cafés of varying kitsch. Everything's nearby. So much happens weekly that I cannot imagine it was only days ago that I did whatever, but it’s also quite difficult to imagine that Christmas was several months ago. But what really does happen here? We go out to a lot of restaurants, trying to discover new ones. We are still discovering a lot about Vietnamese cuisine, in general--and culture, and manners. We've seen six months of southeast Asian weather: watched the last rainy season go and the new one burgeon overnight. The first quarter of our stay has already elapsed. In the next half-year we'll bid on our next tour, Sunshine will be tenured within her organization, and I'll visit home (next week, and then again at the end of this year). Over the next six months it will rain nearly every day. [Cavin]