Cheating Winter

Excuse me while I move into a different room, please. It's nearly 12:00PM and this place is convecting like the surface of the sun. Oh yes, and there are only 11 days to Christmas.

I waltzed off the plane last Saturday morning (and I say morning as a relative term, being as the literal time was 1:00AM, my mental time was 2:00PM, and well, neither seemed to describe the way I felt) and was greeted by this sensational wall of hot, thick air. And that's pretty much what Australia is to me: a giant wall of dense heat. Oh yes, with enormous cockroaches. And tropical birds as numerous a pigeons. And I think it is so fantastic.

It is such a mind twist to be in a place the could almost be home, except that you are about as far from home as you could possibly get. I mean, they speak English (though this could be a debated point: I have a very hard time understanding people sometimes). There are billboards and infomercials and SUVs and air conditioned shopping malls.

But I am not home, or at least not in the home I am used to.
Likewise, I am home. I am in a home that I can come and go from as I please. I have a place to hang my hat, so to speak, if I had a hat. And so far, I have done everything I expected to do. I cooked Thanksgiving dinner (took me...10 hours by myself - but I had an amazing time!) This included making pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin. Anyone who knows my fascination with pie making will find this to be one of my greatest accomplishments.

TIME OUT: I am really tired of typing on a keyboard that doesn't even fit my hands. I miss my Mac. This tiny thing seems to compress my words and ideas because I can hardly type any of them out. I am sorry, at home readers, for my lack of insight. I blame the eeePC.

So what did I do my first week here? As you may have already guessed, very little. I was blowing green snot out of my nose from Monday through Saturday, hardly able to breathe out one or the other sides of my face. I took that as a sign that I should probably just take it easy. I mean watching all of those people on the London Tube sneeze all over their hands and then touch the handrails (which I tried SO HARD to avoid) means that I probably picked up over half a dozen European diseases, bacteria and viruses during my two day stay.

I played with the dog, I cooked things, I cleaned things (per feeling guilty about staying in a place with no fees, rents, mortgages required), I simply...grounded myself.

So the big question:

Is it worth it?

YES! YES! YES!

This is easily one of the coolest things I have ever done. The prospect of all of the amazing things to come after the New Year (in which we begin the work/or helpx/or travel phase of Australia) is overwhelming. In the meantime, I am simply happy.

Simple. I am happy.