Global Traveler

Home

I realize that in my last entry I was dying to leave. The thing with me is that I live for this exact moment and in that exact moment I had just returned from a great vacation and was facing going back a job I am less than excited about. We had about 5 days to relax before going back and in an effort to save money and be lazy, we left the apartment twice. It was wonderful but it gave me a lot of time to build up the dread of returning to work and to reminisce about how nice it was to speak English with people who understand it and eat food that didn't make me sick.

Now we've had time to sink back into life and I have had some time to think. Our new schedule is wonderful. We wake up at 9pm and work all night and go to bed at 10am. It is truly wonderful. I have decided not to continue teaching privately so that I can relax a bit more and enjoy the remaining time here. And now that we know our way around more and are able to travel more the idea of finishing out the contract doesn't sound so bad.

But perhaps I am in another mood. Right now things are amazing. And I thought about the meaning of home. It is no secret that I despise CT and would do anything short of losing a limb to avoid moving back there. Home is obviously not where you grow up. My parents don't even live in the same house. Of course, it will always be my home in the sense that my family is there but home is a much broader feeling more than anything else.

My home is wherever Jed is. I realize this sounds sappy but I've lived all over and always had an empty feeling. Wishing I had someone to tell about the stupidity of my day who would 'get it' but always returning to my own little cave to talk to myself. Now I have a buddy to share everything with. This journey in Japan has been ours. Our first real home together. It has come to define us, if only for the time being. I want to stop and appreciate that for what it is and end the silly quest I have of trying to plan a future that is impossible to predict. Things will fall into place.

When the time comes to move and build another home for ourselves I hope we can be near friends. We've been lucky in our lives to maintain intimate friendships from childhood that only get better each second. Anni and Chris are here now for two weeks and having the four of us crammed into our small apartment is, while cramped, wonderful. They are family. They are comfortable and Japan, albeit unfamiliar and at times unwelcoming, is just our backdrop. They'll go to Hawaii and then back to NYC but having them here has given me a new perspective.

It is time for my negativity to take a backseat to actually enjoy what I have around me. I hope it lasts forever, but if it doesn't I want to know I got the most out of it.