Back

I'm back!
It was quite a journey to get home. Things went the smoothest in the Delhi airport, surprisingly. There were a couple people on our Delhi-Paris flight who looked as though they had just spent several months in an ashram. One guy was wearing what looked like an orange toga and his head was totally bald except for one tiny tuft of hair coming out from the back, and he had an accordian as his carry-on. Another guy sat in the waiting area back straight, legs Indian style, both soles of his barefeet facing up. The flight was fine and we arrived in Paris at 6 am their time. We hung out for a couple hours and then my dear friend Brenna came all the way from Rouen to meet us! We met in the terminal and sat at the airport Bistro for 3.5 hours talking and just basking in each other's presence. The next flight was pretty smooth as well. We broke out the Travel Scrabble but I kept dropping the teeny little letter tiles. The person in front of me had her seat reclined, which made it pretty impossible for me to reach the floor. I smooshed my face against the back of her seat and fumbled around, feeling for those stinky little plastic pieces. Mike beat me by 8, because I couldn't find a place to put my last remaining "J". I think by the time we landed in Philadelphia we had already been travelling for 30 hours. Of course, neither of us brought our US cell phones with us, and neither of us had any US coins, which are necessary to make a call to a cell phone from a pay phone, and we still had to call Charlie to pick us up. Long story short, it was an absolute debacle to get some coins - we had to try the newstand in the Arrivals Hall and two vending machines. But we reached him, and he was wonderful enough to pick us up, and entertained us with stories the whole way home. (Celebrate 10,000 is blowing up!!)

The weekend was spent recooperating. First thing we did was eat some delicious Maple Glen Pizza and second thing was sleep. The next day we both went on runs, did laundry, took long showers. It was absolutely delightful to be able to enjoy being outside! The weather was perfect, 75 and sunny, and we sat outside without sweating! I hung out with my friends and roommates, and have been back to work two days now.

It's amazing to me how seamlessly I jumped right back in. Was I really across the planet one week ago? Did that actually happen? I'm still decorated (like a Christmas tree): the red string and kara on my wrist, payal on my ankle, and rings on my toes. My co-workers said, "Okay.. what's jingling?" Except for cereal, I've eaten the majority of my meals with my fingers (I miss roomali roti). I made chai for myself (thanks in part to Mike's recipe, see below). And I'm reading Shantaram, which makes me a little sentimental, and also makes me want to write my own travel book. (What do you think, blog fans? Could Gautam & Company get published?) My head is still spinning... I'll save the rest for another post.

Safe travels to you, G, as you journey back. And thank you, thank you, thank you to the families.