The next step

I'm going to continue to blog now that I am back. Mostly about local trips, hikes, and maybe a CD or show review. You can check it out (and read about me being held hostage by racoons) at my new blog... www.lrsblog.blogspot.com

Home Sweet Home

Yesterday I arrived home in Seattle. As the plane was landing and I looked out the window and saw Mount Rainer, the cascades and green seattle. I thought to myself "I'm glad to be home" and then thought, "I'm more glad, I'm glad to be coming home". Traveling is amazing. And I miss it a lot but there is something about home. Going to a restaurant and knowing what you want to order because it is your favorite and you always get it. Ordering a double short americano and being able to put a dash of cinnamon in it. waking up with your cat curled up on the bed next to you. Taking a long bath. seeing your friends and family. Yes, home is a good place to be.

Knocked Out

It continually amazes me how a little tiny virus can land a full grown healthy person flat on their back.

Such has been the case with me since arriving in the States. I guess I cursed myself when I said in my last post that I had had good health. Apparently 8 weeks is the limit of my immune system. Once I got comfortable it said, "no more, I'm done." Thus my time here has been slower paced than I had anticipated. But that's been good. As a result, I've been able to spend more time just hanging out with my grandma, reading, watching movies (I highly recommend "stranger than fiction"). It's been a great decompression from two months of traveling. And perhaps the strangest part is how unstrange it feels. How easy it is to lapse back into life as it was. But that is also scary, because I don't want the last two months to have been just a dream and right now, that's what they feel like.

Anyhow, tomorrow Granny and I are going to attempt a trip into a city and perhaps see a show. Then on Thursday we have planned a party for her friends-- tapas. Then on Friday it is time for my final trip home. I can't wait to see my cat.

Eavesdropping

Listening in to others conversations is a luxury I haven't had for the past two months. Surrounded by spanish and portugese their fluid language always just blended in to background noise. Often times I didn't even realize when they were talking to me directly as I got so used to tuning it out.

So now that I am back in the US the coversations around me seem really loud. I'm not used to hearing so much english so every coversation around me seems really pronounced and I'm almost fascinated by my ability to understand the world around me.

Everything seems so easy, it's pure luxury. For instance, I was able to go walgreens today and buy the cold medicine I wanted, and ask if they had "Emergen-C", I could actually ask for something I needed without relying on hand gestures. Luxury.

It's good to be back, but it's also sad that its over. My trip was great and, I am realizing, really blessed with good luck, good experiences, and relatively good weather. I'm sure through time in my memory it will only get better.

It's not over yet though, I have a week here in New York and I'm planning on enjoying my time in the Big Apple to its fullest. So hopefully there will be a few more blogs from here. Then once I am back in Seattle I will see what I can do about getting some pictures up on the site. So all of you used to using this site to waste work time, fear not! the blog will continue a bit longer.