I'm home in the Rockies. And yes, they are still beautiful, even after the Himalayas.It is a shock. First, the time change combined with the 30 hour plane/airport adventure threw my system for quite the loop. Nepal is 12 hours ahead of Colorado and it really is on the other side of the world. Second, it is so clean and open. The streets are wide and you don't have to watch were you step to avoid something nasty. My neighborhood street would be turned into a 5 lane thoroughfare in Nepal. Third, the culture. I haven't seen a fast food chain in 3 months. Or parking lots filled with shiny colored cars. Or this much stuff! And don't even get me started on what it's like to be back @work. But you can probably tell I'm in work brain already - I made a list of the shocking things!
Don't worry faithful blog readers. The blog is not over. I still plan on finishing the blog about the Annapurna Circuit. And I'll keep you all up to date on my adventures @home. So keep reading and I'll keep "saying".
2 comments:
You know it's funny, that reverse culture shock that we get when coming home. A European friend I made in Phnom Penh asked me "So, are you back in the real world?", and it makes you think about which world is real.
I answered "yes", of course, because I was still on the high of being able to clean my teeth in public water and somehow that seemed "real" to me. Now, three weeks later, America seems the least real place I've ever been because it's the only country I've ever been to where town after town after town has the same shops, the same restaurants, the same malls...
Still, the fake world is much cleaner, even if it is a lot less interesting.
Once Chuang Chou dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Chuang Chou. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Chuang Chou. But he didn't know if he was Chuang Chou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Chuang Chou. (From Chuang Tzu)
I know what you mean.
What is real? My first morning, waking up in my bed, I could not figure out where I was. And I still have that feeling.
I miss the passion. We are complacent. Because we can live our "identical" lives and never have to experience anything new. We don't even have to figure out new stores, since we have the same shops, same restaurant, same malls in town after town.
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