Ahmerika!

I have made it home in one piece!

The flight home was pretty exhausting. After spending the night in the airport, I finally boarded at 7 a.m, had a 6 hour flight to Tokyo and a 4 hour layover before the final 9 hour stretch home. For once in my life, I did nothing but SLEEP on the plane, only waking up to eat and stretch my neck. That's a pretty big achievement, because usually I can't sleep worth a damn on planes. I guess 4 months on buses has made it a bit easier! Plus, United gives free drinks on international flights now, and a little red wine is always good when you need to sleep.

Nonetheless, I was still super tired when I got home. I managed to stay up til 9 before I had to go to bed. But of course I was wide awake at 3 a.m., then again at 6. I've been up since about 6:30 this morning...NO NAPS!! Must force myself back into this time zone. I've never really had issues with jet lag before, so hopefully I'll be back to normal and be able to sleep the whole night tonight.

It feels REALLY good to be home :-) When I came back from Korea, I was in really strange emotional place due to all the feelings I was dealing with as a result of leaving my life there. I feel fine now though, almost as if I never left. No reverse culture shock this time, at least not yet. It's only been a day though, I shouldn't speak so soon.

Another difference is that this time I am not craving any food from home, which I think is because the food is SE Asia is so damn good and so varied, while in Korea I was pretty much eating the same stuff for a year. The only things I am craving are foods I had while I was traveling. There were these incredible potstickers I had in Chengdu that were swimming in chili oil - I've been thinking about those for a week now! And Chiang Mai style curry noodles, which I actually have a recipe for.

So what now? I'm in the process of applying for the JET Program - which is a teaching job in Japan. I have an interview for that in SF in about 2 weeks. Going to Japan was one of my MUST-DOs for so long, but now I'm not so sure if I want to do it. Japan still appeals to me, but after being on the road for so long I am not sure if I can handle another year in a new place. It may be time to settle somewhere and get some roots. But I'll see how I feel about being back at home, a few weeks here might have me running for the airport :-) I don't have to decide just yet, so I'll wait and see.

For the time being, I will be living with some friends (and former housemates) in San Francisco. In the fantasy life I created for myself during times of homesickness, I get a motorbike for riding around the city, earn some extra money by substituting, and attend Japanese language classes at night. Throw in a few road trips to visit friends, plus some places that I've never bothered to go, like Yosemite and the Grand Canyon...and I'm keeping pretty busy. How much of that actually happens waits to be seen....

I have LOTS more photos from the trip to post, now that I have my own computer and a fast connection. I'll be putting up pics from earlier in the trip plus some from recent weeks. Stay tuned....