6.20.2004

Home again

It feels strange. I feel like so much has happened in the last two and a half weeks and I'm a different person, and yet, I came home and nothing here has changed. It's all the same. Weird.

China and Thailand were great, as expected. The area where Tom and Sue live in China is very different from what it was when I was there three years ago. They live in a new apartment complex now, and it looks less like the China I'd known and expected and more like the Irvine and Newport I see all the time. Their apartment is WAY nicer than ours, and they pay about a quarter of what we pay. Location is everything, I guess.

Thailand was just as gorgeous as I remembered, so green and humid and beautiful. And the island we stayed on! I'd never been there before, and it looks like something Hollywood invented. It's insane! Water so clear you easily see the bottom 20 feet below, islands jutting straight out of the water with no beach at all, just sheer cliffs, beaches with sand white enough to blind you at first sight. And enough cheap, tacky souvenirs to fill a suitcase. We had a contest going to see who could buy the worst souvenir, and out of all the junk in Thailand Nathan and I acutally picked up the same thing! When we revealed our purchases on the last day, we all about died laughing.

Seeing Tom and Sue and Thomas was definitely the highlight. Thomas was with us the whole time, and I loved hanging out with him and seeing the person he's become. He's so thoughtful and intelligent and fun. It hardly seems possible that he's graduated from highschool! And what's even more impossible is that as we left the airport in Kunming there was a girl crying and breaking her heart over him. Is he really that old? I can't believe it...

We got home late last night. Without our luggage. It's in San Francisco. Seeing the sights, I assume. Babs, would you mind picking it up for us? Just kidding. We'll hopefully see it tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, I'm off to bed. Don't know how I'll sleep, I'm totally jet lagged. But I guess I'd better try. Until next time!