Friday, January 11, 2013

Winding Down

I'll be in Minnesota in two weeks. It's SO weird. As I sit here in Nepal with a gorgeous 360° panorama of mountains in sight, and try to motivate myself to do something, anything, I finally realized that when I'm on an extended trip and I actually purchase my flight home*, and home looms in the near distance, I just don't care anymore. I took a bike ride three days ago. Other than that, in this quaint mountain town of Pokhara, I have slept 15 hours each night, walked down the stairs for breakfast, shopped, gotten one massage and had five hot toddies every night by the fire trying to warm up. I could go on a trek in the mountains, I could go canoeing on the gorgeous lake, I could take photos. But I don't.

I did take this one while on my bike ride.

You see, sometimes when you're traveling, you need some recoup days. And to be fair, Summer and I just spent two weeks, that's fourteen days sleeping in a different place every night. Too many of those nights were spent [not] sleeping on buses or trains. The rest in horrible $3 guesthouses with no heat and no hot water. Freezing. Dirty. So if I need to spend three nights sleeping for 15 hours I can't be too hard on myself. But! I'm in Nepal! I only have two weeks left! I should be doing something!

Anyway, Dear Reader, if you're sitting in your office cubicle dreaming of faraway places and exotic lands and reading this, and I sound like a complete Jerk who's in just such a place sleeping all day: I get it. You're right. And just for you, I have the goal of going canoeing before I leave this town.

Speaking of home looming in the near distance, I'm getting really sick for it. I'm thinking of all the things I miss and haven't done and want to do. Here is an incomplete list of things I have not done (not really) in the last four-and-a-half months:

  • Taken a hot shower.
  • Blow-dried or flat-ironed my hair.
  • Painted my toenails.
  • Worn makeup.
  • Slept in a comfortable bed.
  • Stayed any one place more than nine nights (and that only happened one time. Usually it's just one or two.)
  • Bought something without carefully calculating its value, weight and size.
  • Gotten my haircut or updated my roots.

I plan to take care of most of the above immediately upon my return, and looking forward to my forever-long hot shower, my mom's cooking and the comforts of home has got me feeling a little 'meh' about my current surroundings. Looking back to a time when I used to look forward all year to a nine-day vacation, I am ashamed that I couldn't care less about the next two weeks of my life. In the dream locations of Nepal and Japan. Yep. Jerk.

 

 

*THAT was a nightmare decision to make. Such a nightmare in fact I postponed it to just 10 days before my scheduled flight out of Nepal. I wanted to go back through Greece but couldn't afford it. I tried Hawaii, Costa Rica, the Philippines, Vietnam, even San Diego, desperate to get a little warm-up before returning to freezing Minnesota. Flying through Japan was half the price of any of those other places. And they're smack dab in the middle of their winter. I don't even want to go. Boo freaking hoo. If only the starving children in Africa could see how hard my life is...I think they'd gladly keep their own problems.

 

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ahh... post partum trip depression. I was in Egypt, sitting on the Red Sea just over a year ago. I read that where I was at was one of the top ten diving/snorkeling reefs in the world. I didn't care. I had ten days left in my trip and I just slept in a depressed state of "who cares." The diving was only $25 and I didn't do it. Then on the last day, Annie convinced me to go snorkeling and I could not believe how beautiful that reef was. One of the best in the world. It was National Geographic colorful. I wished I would have dived that stupid reef.

As I prepare for re-entry shock when I return, I too descend into the pit of "bleh". Annie is usually rearing to pack in every last adventure and I just sleep. If you can will yourself to it, you will probably thank yourself later for packing in a few last great adventures.

Loved your trip. Wish you were continuing on, but.... til next time.

mark shoberg

Chris said...

Kady, listen to Mark..... Go buy yourself a pair of leg warmers and get going. I've never been on a trip where I had the luxury to wind down. And your are going to need pics and stories to post for the next several months. You slept. Now explore!

Anonymous said...

Kady, just do what I do. Follow your heart. Napoleon D.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I misquoted myself. It should have been," Just listen to your heart. That's what I do." N.Dynamite

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