Hump Day

Today I feel like I've passed over some hump, past my resistance to the uncertainty, confusion and akwardness of traveling by myself in an unfamiliar country where I don't speak the language.

I'm at a quiet, open-air bar with three other guys (all Vietnamese), a cheesy blinking-light ancestral altar, the smell of rain on hot pavement and my third $1 Heinrken. On the TV is the kind of B-grade movie (dubbed in Vietnamese of course) that would be lifetime employment for the sarcastic commentators of Mystery Science Theatre. The absurdity of this celluloid train wreck is magic though; it transcends all cultural and language barriers and gives the four of us common comic ground.

For the first time in three weeks I finally get the joke. For the first time in three weeks I feel just a bit at home.