Last night, as I sat brushing my teeth, I starting daydreaming (nightdreaming?) about being home for Christmas – having a glass of egg nog in hand, sitting next to a warm fire in my parents' living room, and watching the Packers on their nice 40” flat screen TV. I realized how eager I am to be home (despite my continued enjoyment of life in India), and if my math is correct, it was about the same time last semester that I started looking forward to being home – 2-3 months into the semester, long after I've left home, but before I've started getting sentimental about leaving India. I think this highlights the difference between the short-term mentality versus the long-term mentality. Inevitably, everyone living abroad for an extended period of time will miss home at some point. But because I know exactly when I'll be home next, I can allow myself to envision and look forward to what I will do the moment I'm home. Long-termers are not afforded this luxury, since they generally go somewhere to stay indefinitely, so such wanderings of the mind are only a distraction from reality. In my case, because I'll be leaving here in a little over a month, I have less incentive to work through the difficulties of life here – the language barrier, cultural differences, personality differences with my co-workers – and less incentive to fully engage life here. On occasion, I have had the thought, “I shouldn't bother getting involved in [fill in the blank] because I'll be gone in a couple months anyways.” All this to say...I think I have a new respect for people who pick up and move abroad indefinitely without knowing the next time they'll be “home”.
In other news, Diwali, the Hindu "festival of lights", was last Friday, and I took a stroll through the Mussoorie bazaar with the other interns to check out the festivities. Firecrackers are a central part of the celebration, and these 'crackers are set off with little regard for passing pedestrians, so I very nearly had my leg blown off. At least it felt like that. Here are a few pictures from the festivities:
I love the pictures Nick. Monkeys...awesome. I was just thinking about you for some reason (though I can not seem to remember why now) but I managed to find your blog. Great stuff, finish strong.
ReplyDeleteLove this post.
ReplyDeleteegg nog will be delicious - all in good time. speaking of delicious, you're missing thanksgiving and all of the overconsumption America is proud of. all cynicism aside, the food has been tastylicious. i bet your mom is saving a plate for you.
ReplyDeleteNick- we look forward to your arrival in a few short weeks and are thankful you will be back for Christmas:) Funny that you should dream of drinking egg-nog of all things but I guess you start to miss/dream of what you don't have?? I'm sure Mom will have the fridge full of egg-nog, a fire blazing, and the remote control ready to do some serious surfing on Dec. 23rd:) Thanks for the update and we miss you bunches!!!
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