Saturday, August 14, 2004

And i did it all without the ruby slippers

Well, I'm home. I can't tell you much about why i'm choosing to write this at 2:30 in the morning, but I can tell you that this means that i definitely have adjusted to the time difference. I can also tell you that that means this will likely be short and/or slightly incoherent.

I've been back for a week now. I understand what my 'uganda friends' (those who returned to canada before me) meant when they said it felt like they'd never left. I expected some form of 'reverse culture shock', but other than being amazed at the variety of food available at Longo's, I haven't really felt a thing. I mean, i was downtown getting my hair cut within 18 hours of arrival, and other than out-of-controlness of my hair, it felt like everything was totally normal. I have somehow turned into a raving, out of control shoe shopper though. I've bought EIGHT PAIRS of sandals this week. Its a problem. (Although, i do have two points in my defence: 1)I feel a need to buy up a year's supply of footwear for my return to uganda before sandals dissappear from canadian shoe stores; and 2)I happened upon a shoe store with a buy 1, get 3 (THREE!!) free sale. So that's four pairs right there.)

Other than the excessive shoe shopping, i've gotten a chance to see some of my friends, which was amazing and nice, I missed a lot of them while i was gone; i've had chunks of my hair died green-blue (afterall, at what other point in my life am i going to be both jobless AND non-job-hunting?); and i've gotten caught up with all sorts of medical appointments (no cavities!). This afternoon, i also escaped the rain by going to see a matinee of Garden State, which i absolutely loved. Even when he just played a hapless/yet earnest med student on Scrubs, i had a crush on Zach Braff, but now that i know he can write/direct too, well... Let's just say, that if i was 16, there'd be magazine photos of him taped to by wall. (Hey to the Family in new jersey: you guys are jewish, zach braff is jewish, its a small state, someone you know must have gone to hebrew school with his cousin or plays bridge with his grandma or something. See what you can do, and put in a good word, 'kay?)

Off to bed I go!

Sunday, August 01, 2004

Whoa... really happy this time....

I'm coming home to Canada! On Wednesday! So I'll be in Toronto by thursday evening! And the reason I can be so unequivocally happy about this, is that I get to return to Uganda, a couple of months later, to start my new job! (Don't get me wrong... I am having some unpleasant thoughts about the fact that I will be away from my family and friends for a cumulative almost-two years. But the opportunity to stay - to have a this career opportunity, and to live a life where everyday is a little adventure - is pretty hard to pass up. While I am really looking forward to Toronto, i just got back to Kampala from a weekend camping on this little island in the middle of the Nile river. Its hard not to love a place like that.)

But, I mean, really. How could i not want to come back to a place where i laugh this ridiculously?

(Hey, we were at the US Marine House. Cuz like, who wouldn't laugh at Marines? I mean, all that protecting democracy stuff? And c'mon, the haircuts?)

We do like to make sure those freedom fighters know that most of their friends are in fact Canadians though. A little bit of that underdog-showin'-em-who's-boss kind of a thing. So on July 1st we had a big Canada Day party.

We got all flag-wavy and patriotic. So un-canadian. Although the beery drunkenness was pretty much in line with the national character.

I can't beleive that in a few days I'll be in actual-canada, rather than in the let's-pretend-your-ugandan-backyard-is-muskoka kind of canada. Cool, huh?

See y'all soon!