Six Months In, I'm Out

A couple of weeks ago I celebrated the six-month anniversary of my return to the US by hanging out at my sister's apartment in Milwaukee and taking stock of my situation.

The months since returning from Niger can be summed up in a few words, and I've listed these below, since I am not Mark Twain, and I am not succinct.

January - shock, one friend gets married, shivering, inability to drive, begin addiction to gym, panic.

February - relearn to drive, seasonal affective disorder-related haze, despair, restlessness, frustration, lots of sleeping, first game of volleyball in years, thinking about god/universe/everything.

March - happiness at not having to wear socks anymore, ease on my favorite coast, visiting friends in three-hour increments, falling out of the gym habit, exhaustion, another friend gets married and one gets engaged, The Brittany Show, tired of hearing myself talk about myself.

April - return to obsession with gym... begin to earn money, substitute teaching, but only when I feel like it... malaise.

May - finally begin to feel like myself the day it hits 81 degrees in Wisconsin and I can open the doors and windows in Mom and Dad's house. Gardening, traveling, happy to be home (WI/WI). Still bothered by the phrase "real world." Certainly it's not my real world.

June - business, guilt, euphoria, shame, stress, happiness, sense of usefulness.

July - move to Fiji.

I arrived in Suva, the capital of the Fiji Islands, yesterday morning. Check out my "Fijian Daydreamin'" blog at http://South-sPacifics.blogspot.com. But I must say, people do indeed drink Fiji bottled water here.