Thursday, February 21, 2013

3 years on the other side of the world

Sweetums and I passed our 36 month mark as expats at the end of January.   Why is this significant?  Well, you start to understand it is truly the little things in life that make it grand.  That even though you have gray hair and have to wear bifocals to see, there is so much stuff still to see and do.  Perspectives change.  What may look easy, isn't always.  A life that is difficult doesn't mean that it isn't joyful.  Home is where the love is.

So, with all of that said, here is what is running through my brain as I ponder the last 36+ months.

1. Our assignment was for 36 months, but as you might have guessed, we are still here.
2. It feels like home when I return.
3. We have filled out so many arrival/departure documents, visa forms, and purchased enough airline tickets for international travel, etc that we have memorized our passport numbers and all of the important stuff to go with it.
4. I still love hearing "Welcome home." at US immigration.
5. I still miss driving myself places.
6. Conversely, I do love having someone pick me up at the airport after a 30 hour transit and I can't figure out what day it is.
7. You think that a 12 to 14 hour flight is a piece of cake.
8. I still love bajajs.
9. I still get homesick.
10. I love my friends here.
11. I love my friends at home.
12. I love that some of the friends here have become friends at home.
13. I love that our son has had the opportunity to come and share part of this life with us and see so many things that he would never have seen otherwise.
14. I appreciate that folks have really gotten tired of hearing about what it is like to live here.
15. I appreciate the fact that it is very hard to explain what it is like to live here.
16. We are still a very, very long way from home and that is difficult to deal with sometimes.
17. I really do like freshly pressed clothing and sheets.
18. Personal space is a variable, not a constant.
19. What may have frightened you so much to begin with isn't so scary after a while.
20. Some folks are much bigger thrill seekers than sweetie and I are and that is okie dokie.
21. I still don't understand a whole lot of things.
22. People who text and walk wander are a major pain in the behind.
23. There are still scary, horrible, heart-wrenching things that you see too frequently in many places in the world.
24. There are very sweet and kind people everywhere.
25. There are some not so sweet and kind people everywhere.
26. What an experience this has been to a place I quite honestly had to look up on a map to see exactly where it is.
27. I really dislike the distance I have to travel to get home (which ever home that might be).
28. You can only watch so many movies on an airplane before you faint in little snippets without realizing it and then are so befuddled as to why the movies are not making any sense what-so-ever that you have to watch it again.
29. The last 6 hours of the endurance test called flying home are enough to make you want to either scream, cry, or run up and down the aisles.  All of which will cause even more delays when you land.
30. I am blessed.


0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home