This post about my trip back to the States is long overdue, very much because of the aftermath of the trip itself. Having traveled to five different cities in two different hemispheres in the course of just over two weeks takes its toll, even when your trip is for pleasure. My inner journo has been stifled by exhaustion, illness, seasonal confusion, followed by the desperate rush to finish everything I was unable to accomplish while I was in my post-travel daze. But I write this now with an open schedule and a clear head, newly readjusted to the gravitational pull of the Southern Hemisphere.
A few observations from the flip side:
American money IS really boring. I had heard that before but could never really relate. It also feels substantially less robust than Aussie money. Perhaps currency reflects culture in more ways than intended. But you certainly spend a lot less of it. My idea of a reasonable price is so far from what it used to be. Shopping at certain outlets and chain stores felt almost like getting away with theft. I guess there is something to be said for a mass consumerist culture. Although, taxes and tipping sucks a bit. Go easy on the foreigners who might shortchange you. They probably just come from a culture with a more straightforward billing system.
Driving on the other side of the road only seemed a little strange when I was on a new road. It created a particularly strange sensation while on a road lined with eucalyptus trees though. Coincidence? I think not.
Changing seasons on the way there was not particularly hard, but coming back to winter is quite a depressing experience. If the cold doesn’t get to you, then the lack of light does. We came back to Sydney on the shortest day of the year after having been in a city where it was still light at 8pm. Luckily the days can only get longer from here.
My Many Homes:
Going back to LA felt the same way it always has. I guess I’m used to coming home again, even if the trips happen less frequently than they used to. But this was the first time I have ever gone back to New York and not been returning to my own humble abode. I can only describe the sensation of going back like that of reading a book or seeing a movie that you loved as a child but haven’t been exposed to for many years. You remember the major plot points, the characters and how it ends (usually with a slice of pizza at 2am on a Sunday) but you’ve forgotten little details here and there. I’d see certain street corners, overhear conversations on the subway, get trapped in the stampede of a deli lunch rush and find myself thinking, oh yeah, I remember that.
It was also louder, more congested and just generally more insane than I remember. I guess after living there for enough time you develop the ability to shut out everything but what you need and want to hear, see and even smell, then lose it after spending some time away. But I muscled through overstimulation with the iron will (and stomach) of a true New Yorker. Yeah, I’ve still got it.
The bagels are amazing, the cocktails are generous, the pizza is rich and delicious and the coffee sucks. But it tastes like no other coffee in the world. That slight hint of burnt metal and taste of grounds that have spent weeks at the bottom of the machine is a flavor I fondly associate with the Big Apple, ode de health violations. I also thought I walked plenty in Sydney, but I realize now that no creature on earth walks as much as a New Yorker. It took wearing holes in one pair of shoes and my only pair of feet before I got my city legs back. Aussies will be able to swim around the planet when the polar ice caps melt but until then they’ll never beat a New Yorker in an endurance walk.
But perhaps the most surprising thing about going back home was the fact that it made me really feel how much time has passed since I’ve been back. When you move to a new country, how you feel and what you experience tends to change every few weeks. Excitement becomes culture shock, because excitement again. New experiences become everyday life. Odd becomes normal and eventually your new environment becomes your new home and before you know it an entire year has passed. But for the people you left behind, the people whose lives now have one less person in them, they seem to have felt every day pass. You can tell by how tightly they hug you when they finally see you again. You can see it in the tears they can’t hold back when you have to say goodbye for another year. It suddenly becomes much harder to leave than you thought it would be.
But because of all those people, both East coast and West, I now have more than one place to call home. As hard as it is to be separated by time zones and hemispheres, I know I can not only always come back but that I will also always be welcomed. I’ve felt so much at home in two vastly different cities now, that when people here ask me where I’m from I have trouble deciding what to say. And I wouldn’t feel that way without the people I have so much trouble prying myself away from. So I consider myself lucky, exceptionally lucky. And if I continue to be as lucky as I am now, maybe I’ll have a third city to call my home.