(Picture is taken on the grounds of the Golden Mount.)Wow, we have been back in the US for 1 week. In some ways, it feels as though we never left. We are simply sliding back into our pre-Bangkok lives. I picked up Daisy, my car, from a friend's house last night, and I was so relieved to discover that I can actually still operate a car with manual transmission. Walking around town feels oddly normal---it feels distant and yet like we were just here last month. Of course we didn't get to see the seasons change, and I have to remind myself that it is the middle of 2009 right now and not January, the month we left Philadelphia.
This is the first time I've had this experience of leaving a place for a number of months and then returning to the same place. It feels odd to be back in some ways. Did that whole experience in Thailand really happen? Were we really gone for 4 months---and a month before that? I see we have pictures from it, and obviously, there is this blog. Still, things are so familiar.
Things are so familiar and yet we are still craving change. Chris and I are so tired of STUFF. We have so much stuff. I think living away from so much of it for so long has made us want to scale down on what we own. Tonight, he says to me as we head to a friend's BBQ, "How about we get rid of it all?"
"All of it?" I ask.
"Yes, all of it."
Wow, I can't quite bring myself to do that---I am too attached to most of my things. But it does raise a question: Why not at least make a huge effort to reduce? I do believe we need to scale down. We need to become more realistic in our thinking of how much time we really have to dedicate to so many things. Purge the system! Clear out all but the essential things. Oh, it is so hard because we are both such sentimental, overly optimistic, packrats. For example, I honestly thought I was going to have time to use all of my skeins of yarn, read books 4, 5, and 6 of the Harry Potter books, read all of my NEJM issues from the past year, and catch up on my Yoga Journals while in Thailand. Even now, I am having to remind myself that I cannot possibly read all of the books that I have on my bedside table before school starts. What things are worth keeping and what things are just weighing us down?
So, we are trying something new this weekend. We are going to continue ridding ourselves of things---mostly cooking things we have but don't like and coming to terms with the fact that there's no way we are going to read all of the material we have accumulated. We have both returned to Philadelphia exhausted from carrying so much baggage. Oh gosh, it pains me to imagine getting rid of some of my books---I really did mean to read all of them!! But, reality is bearing its head, and when stuff become burdensome, it is time to purge!
Our cat, Callie, is getting used to us again. Goodness, I missed her. She's assertively meowing to me---MEOW! MEOW! I wish I understood Cat because it does not make sense that she runs away after clearly trying to get my attention! Crazy cat! It is going to be nice to have her company while Chris is in Malaysia.
I do wonder: How would our last 6 months be different if we were not planning a wedding? What in the world would be doing with our time? We've spent all week going between wedding planning and purging/cleaning our apartment and reinventing our home. We are so happy to know that we are staying here for a while. The first thing we did our first day back home was rearrange the bedroom---for some reason, it was of utmost importance to me to have things rearranged. I needed to create something new in our "old" apartment---even though we only lived here for 4 months before heading to Thailand. Somehow, that was the OLD place.
Okay, well, I keep adjusting to life back here. It was sooo good to get away from Philadelphia. I know we both needed the change and the experience away. No, I did not do nearly as many things while in Thailand as I had wanted to do. And I am still at a loss of words when people ask, "So, what did you do while Chris worked?" I still HATE that question. How do I say, "Well, I got a taste of what it is going to be like for Chris while I'm in medical school, though, without the whole 'living in a foreign country' bit."
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