Sorry to skip so quickly over Vietnam and Korea, but I
temporarily lost my compulsive documantarianism in the vast sea of beer and
renewing friendships. Suffice it to say
that I enjoyed a160-hour conversation with John about every topic under the
sun, punctuated by steaming pho and Tigers in every dive bar between Saigon and
Hanoi (see johninvietnam.blogspot.com for more detail). This was followed by a Glock-shooting,
ice-skating, ball-bowling, G.I.-seducing, kimchi-eating, wig-wearing,
cultural-observing, card-playing, Tequila-Sunrise-drinking four-day-weekend in Seoul
with Judy, Alex, and Mike. (Oh, and Judy
and I got naked with the elderly.) Is
there’s anything better than daylong reminders of why you so love the people
you do?
After sleeping it all off on the plane ride home I met MPJ,
currently on a three-month road trip around the country w/ Mrs. PJ, in Miami,
and we tore it up for two days until she moved south to Key West and I east to
Switzerland. After so many years of
exhaustive verbal reconstruction I could see wheels turning as she connected
sight with hearsay and wondered, as I always do, how seeing my Miami changed
the Nathalie in her head. You always
learn a lot about people when you watch them in their native milieu.
And much too soon I was on another airplane, this time to
Muetti’s ninetieth birthday party, a seven-hour lunch at my uncle’s restaurant
in eastern Switzerland. Everyone was
pleased with my cooking school plan, as I come from a restaurant family that
spans several generations now. Finally—something easier to talk about in German than Gender
Studies!
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