Home

I'm home now. My little sister managed to not burn down my house or kill any of my chickens. In fact, she actually spiffed the place up while I was away.

The flights home were murder. I' was in the air for like 24 hours. Fortunately, I was able to nap though parts of the trip. I usually don't sleep so well on airplanes. But in this case the flights were so long there really wasn't any choice.

Now that I'm home I feel a sort of home sickness. It's like reverse-home-sickness. Auroville was starting to feel like home. I assume this sort of thing is normal, and it will pass. I mean, California is a damn nice place to live, so why would I miss India?

I've had some many experiences over the last couple of months, it's going to take me a couple of MORE months just to integrate them into myself. One of my friends said to me yesterday "I've heard that going to India changes people." I have to agree. It will be difficult for me to ever look at things the same way.

While I was India I met several ex-patriot Americans and many other western ex-pats. All of them love India (and/or Auroville. Many of them are Auroville lovers) I was able to get the "inside scoop" on living in India as an ex-pat. Interesting stuff. As I've said, I have a lot to think about. But right now I must admit that I believe I'll be going back to India again. If not to stay, at least for another long visit. There is just too much to see there for one visit to be enough. There are other places I want to see first though, so India will probably need to wait for a while.