To Ann Marie, because it never got mailed

23 March 2006

I think I've written you a number of letters. Most of them never actually made it to paper. The rest are the crumbled balls at the bottom of the waste basket.

Things here are much like I describe in the February letter, despite the month's difference. I actually did get into the Badeschiff, that swimming pool complex, although I didn't blog about it. It was after I returned from Amsterdam, and it was with the friend of whom I last wrote. He and I were the only two in swimsuits and googles. The rest of the guests were either wrapped in robes and relaxing around the complex on lounge chairs or they were naked and in the water with us. The entire complex is co-ed. The lockers. The showers.

Um, and there are no curtains. Him, me, and others taking our turn under the showerheads, reaching past each other for shampoo, lathering up...

Cue the porn music!

LOL, you would have loved it. Okay, maybe not the nudity (am I wrong about that?). But I think you would have been charmed by the rest. About walking outside from the lockers to the pool on a mat dotted with patches of ice. (He was smart enough to bring flip-flops.) About the pool itself, submerged in the Spree. (How cool is that?! When we were in the water, we could actually hear the crack of the ice breaking on the river.) About being able to slip out past the pool's sheeting and enjoy the cold air and the night sky.

Yes, we were there at night. Around 8ish. No, no, it must have been later. But I remember that we ate dinner really, really late at yet another Indian restaurant on my block. Not too bad.

There's a lot of work to do today, but I promise to write again. Okay, at least a postcard. And I'll update the blog more, and not in this cheating way. (Even my mother was complaining that I hadn't written lately.)

BTW: Will you keep a blog when you're in Vietnam? If not, send a postcard. And how long are you staying anyway?

Ok, enough. Miss you. Wish you were here.


Tammi