First week back, surprise surprise, I'm depressed
For the past month, I was looking forward to coming back home, seeing my family and friends, and to start working again and putting some money in the bank. However, I arrived into LA extremely bummed, dare I say, depressed, about being back. "But Daniel, you said on several occasions you were the happiest man alive, what happened?" What happened is I came back to the reality of a box full of mail that included IRS notices (yikes!) renewal notices for ten million magazines (Yoga Magazine, how did I get on THAT list?) and a jury summons or two, not to mention being unemployed and putting on a suit (A SUIT for crissakes!) and interviewing for a job. To go from over a year of making new and interesting friends everyday, seeing and experiencing new things and countries, and just having nothing to look forward to except for the next adventure to this, well, this is no fun:
From back home |
So, what did a couple of my friends do? They invited me out for dinner one evening, and they knew I had been travelling through Central America and South America for the past six months. One of the last things I wanted to eat was rice and beans. Well, guess where they took me? A Central American restaurant, complete with rice and beans, and get this, a live mariachi band! I couldn't help but laugh at the situation. I mean, after eating rice and beans for about six months, I came back to LA for more rice and beans.
I was also used to speaking Spanish everyday since December when I first arrived into Argentina, so during my first dinner back with my family, I accidentally started a few conversations in Spanish! Grandpa would ask me in Chinese, "How was your trip?" I responded, "Bueno, para... I mean..." and then revert to my broken Chinese. My mom asked me something and I answered, "Si, pero... I mean...." Who knows how much longer this is going to last. But, my English is getting gooder these days.
I also interviewed with a few companies already. I knew I lost weight on this trip, so I decided to put on the first suit I ever bought for myself coming right out of college. Not only did it fit, the pants were a bit loose! 11 years after graduating from college, and my suitpants didn't fit because they were too BIG, not too small... who would have thought? It also took me a good fifteen minutes to get my tie on right. It was just really weird to have gone from my daily outfit of shorts and flip flops to a suit and tie with an ironed (gasp!) shirt and polished black dress shoes.
Here's an interesting Welcome Back to LA story. I went to a bar Friday night with my buddy and roommate Calvin, and I bought the first round since it was the least I could do after he pretty much handled all the odds and ends for me while I was away. I took out a $20 bill, prepared to pay (and expecting change actually,) when the nice pretty bartender told me it was... $26! She looked at me kinda surprised, like, "Where have you been, hello this is LA!" I looked at her kinda surprised, like, "Where the hell am I, freakin Norway??!!" After travelling through South and Central America, land of $1 beers and $1.5 cocktails (if that) it was a rude awakening. Needless to say, I didn't buy Calvin any more drinks that night.
We had a nice big family BBQ as well. It was nice to catch up and see everybody whom I hadn't seen for over a year. For those of you who don't know my family, well, we are a bit crazy. One of my older cousins drank so much she puked. Oh yeah, she's a mother of two. And yeah, they were there too. We just all kept eating and playing poker as if nothing happened, because that kind of stuff is just par for the course in the Lew family.
From back home |
I have been suffering from some major travel bug withdrawals, so I booked a flight out to see my older sister and my awesome nephews in the Bay Area. It's not Colombia or Guatemala, or any new and exciting country, but at the very least, I am getting back on the plane again. I'm already feeling better just typing that last sentence!