Back in Seattle and it's a little strange

I’m back and I have to say it is a little strange. Today I was with my parents shopping for groceries and I was standing watching people and it felt so odd. I miss SE Asia. I just miss it.

The plane ride back was fine, 13+ hours of flying plus some waiting time. We had a semi bumpy flight from Taipei to Seattle – I’m not sure exactly how bumpy it was – I took a sleeping pill and was happy to wake up and find that I only had two hours left until we were in Seattle. I’m not sure what time zone my body is in right now. The last few nights I have taken sleeping pills to try and get back into Seattle time. I tend to be waking up early and ready for bed in the afternoon.

I am in hibernation mode. It is COLD! Already I have seen snow, rain, sun, and wind all in one day. Somehow I managed to get some sort of stomach bug during our last few days in Bangkok and brought it home with me so I don’t feel the best. I think it is funny that the sickest I have felt has been on the way home and not when I first got to SE Asia. It’s funny how some things work.

Traveling with my parents was great. We managed not to get sick of each other the whole time and I am still happy to be with them. This week Terry heads back to being a handyman while Liz heads back to the VA. I will be working on adjusting to being in the US as well as going through all my pictures! I’m trying to cut down my slideshow from 14+ hours to something a little more reasonable for my friends and family to sit through.

While I miss being in SE Asia there are some nice parts of being home – being able to drink tap/shower water. I really had to think about not opening my mouth in the shower while I was away. I guess I didn’t know how much I liked drinking shower water from the showerhead. I like having milk and hot, hot, hot showers. I finally feel clean after a few good scrubs. I have to remember that I can finally throw my toilet paper in the toilet bowl and not in a trashcan. I love being able to have safe water at a restaurant and not having to buy something to drink. It is the small things that I have missed that are the simple pleasures right now but how I would love be back there and wouldn’t even mind needing to remember to bring my own toilet paper or how dirty my feet would get. A hard thing being back is how much everything cost. I could eat three meals a day out on less than 10 dollars and here I don’t think I could do that and have nice meals. Oh, yesterday I found out how low gas prices have gotten and was flabbergasted. Somehow no one told me that I wouldn’t have to come back to paying four dollars a gallon on gas!

I’ve said it before but this was an amazing learning experience for me and I’m so happy that I went and did it. Thanks for all the support along the way. I haven’t figure out whether or not I will keep updating my blog. For the next week or two I will be low key and will be catching up with friends. My hope/plan is to meet up with my friend Katie in May in Europe. One thing that I have learned is that no matter what my plan is, it can change at any time, and that until I am doing it I can’t count on anything – so we will see what happens. More pictures of the last few weeks will come in the next few days.