On the 15 th, only a little over a week away, I'm back to the states again. Not sure if I should be excited, sad, happy or what. I've developed the same love hate relationship with Vietnam as I have with the US. However, I didn't know my relationship with the US was like this until I spent a lot time in Vietnam. My guess is this feeling is much like what a man with a wife and lover might have. The lover gives him a escape but then he misses the belonging that goes with the marriage. So he floats back and forth as I have been doing with Vietnam and the US over the past 6 years.

The good times in Ho Chi Minh City are great and then I am close to being run down by a motorbike, car, truck or a 40 passenger bus, seems that everyone with in a 100 meters of me what's something - "sir, you buy post card, book, wallet, my sister "(kidding just seeing if your still their) - "sir, where you go, motorbike" (with hand gestures of driving a motorbike in case I'm deaf) cyclo guy offering city tour, massage or his sister(again), nine people cut in front of me in the line at the bookstore, my tailor screws up my new shirts and when I complain, her reply "looks fine to me" as she gives me this smug look and my Vietnamese friends show up for dinner a couple hours late and give me a look "like what's your problem buddy" that's when I want my old life back.

Then the next day, I have no problems getting across the street, all the street vendors, motorbike and cyclo guys seem to vaporise or stop and just want to talk (one did), it rains and I have my umbrella, my Vietnamese friends came late but brought dinner with them, and best of all I couldn't get out the bar because my Vietnamese friends keep buying me beers.