I know, I know. It has been well over a month since I have written an entry. I am aware of this. So sorry! Know that it’s not you; it’s me (Seinfeld, anyone?), spawned from my laziness and my fear of closure and my tendency to procrastinate with everything that is remotely hard. That, and the excuse “Hey, I'm still jetlagged,” that I hope to “milk” for another two years. Here goes.

So I don’t even know where to start. I feel kind of like this is the most ridiculous attempt at a “what I did on my summer vacation” entry. Summer and traveling and India seem so far away, so long ago. In some ways, it is almost like I am trying to grasp at the dream from which I have just awakened and I don’t have the means or the right words to describe what it was like. In other ways, I still look around me and think, “Wait a minute… when (and how) did I get here?”

All and all, my time in Ladakh might have been one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I learned so much about myself and the world and the way other people live this life, and I don’t think I can ever (and certainly hope I won’t) forget the lessons that place taught me. I refuse to give a play-by-play, so here are some highlights:

I could go on forever. As I have been telling people so far, I need guidance for the stories. I need very specific questions to answer, rather than trying to sum it all up on my own, to give the typical stock answer. And I would rather just tell you what you want to hear, anyway, than share an hour-long epic, when all you want to hear about was the monkey “situation.”

And now, here I am, back in the U.S. of A. Let me tell you, it is weird. Seeing my family and friends has been so wonderful, more so than I can even explain, but I’m sure it is not too hard to imagine. So far, I have spent a weekend at the lake, a few days at Granny’s house, been to church twice, and taken a trip to Tennessee. I very well may have gained ten pounds so far, and if I haven’t yet, I should. Food tastes so incredibly good, and I’m getting it all in before I get my tonsils out in a few days (yikes!).

Here are some things that are strange. When I was in the airport in New Jersey, after traveling for about 24 hours and still experiencing the effects of a bacteria infection, I broke down because I couldn’t make a decision about a bagel. I can’t get over the amount of choice we have here, and I don’t know yet if I want to. I certainly don’t want to become the crazy lady who compares everything to “her time in India” twenty years ago, but I also don’t want to slip back into the habit of buying everything just because it is there and I can, or buying more because it is a better deal. What do I chose: crazy, pretentious woman or consumerism? I tell you what, being back in the land of seventy-five choices of cereal definitely hasn’t helped my indecisiveness. I stood in the grocery store aisle for about ten minutes the other day, looking and pacing in front of the juice, and finally decided it would be better if I just exited the vicinity immediately. Also hard is the realization that life really, really does go on without you. My sister is a high school graduate and old looking and beautiful, getting ready for college, and I’m confused about when that happened. I had the most awesome back-together-again party with my Tennessee friends, but was asking, “Wait… who?” every two seconds. People have gotten married and divorced and hurt and sick and people have died since I have been gone, but I was half expecting to come back to an unchanged world. And yet, among all of these feelings and experiences, I still have the sensation that I never left. That might be the weirdest… so where did India go? Was it really all a bizarre dream?

The great things about being back, though? That everything is beautiful and well kept. That everything seems so much cleaner. That communication is easy and reliable. That it feels a little more comfortable to be right in the middle of the socio-economic spectrum, rather than right on top. That people are generally healthy. That I can drink tap water. That I trust fruit and vegetables again. That there is ICE in my drink. That I can pet dogs. That I find comfort in the mundane (ha). And, of course, that I am HOME.