Leaving here

It's getting close to the time to leave and it's a weird feeling, because once you've been living somewhere for several months, you start to feel like you live there.   Normally routine things take on a heightened significance: last flight to Aceh, last drink at Jaya Pub, last flight to Aceh, last ride in a bajaj.  New experiences are strange too; for example, discovering a cool new restaurant you should have found months ago, and knowing you won't come back.

 

On the other hand, it will be nice to be back to a real home again, to sleep in my own bed, enjoy a sandwich from Prego, walk around in relatively unsmoggy air, and see everyone I miss.    So there's definitely an upside.

 

Between here and there, there's getting there -- a trip that takes nearly 30 hours, first to Singapore, then Tokyo, then the longest leg, a 14 hour nonstop from Tokyo to DC on an airline that's been showing the same tiresome movies for a year (Meet the Parents, Bridget Jones) and always serves the same meal (an undercooked steak).   The one good thing on that flight are the udon noodles they serve about 3/4 of the way there.

 

But I'm not quite gone yet... hopefully a few more things to show and tell before I leave.

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