Hey, good news: they let me back into this country! I guess that bus fare evasion ticket from over a decade ago isn’t enough to have me deported to a foreign country. (Tongue in cheek obviously, but for the record I am a full citizen of these United States.) It’s always lovely to hear the immigration officer say “Welcome home.”
It’s indeed great to be home. Over the course of two weeks in China and South Korea, I somehow managed to lose 10 pounds. You’d think with the overwhelming amounts of delicious foods over there (cheaper, too) that I’d return home with more flubber. I was fully ready to work off the extra poundage until I stepped on the scale and found out I’m actually lighter. I guess cardio is a very effective weight-loss lever: 25,000 steps every single day is enough to overwhelm all that I ate whilst on vacation.
Good to know that next time I can eat even more.
What isn’t so pleasant after my return is the intense jet lag. For the week afterwards I was struggling to stay awake past 10:00 PM, even though my scheduled bed time is 11:30 PM. Multiple days of sleeping over 9 hours wasn’t enough to break the spell. It probably didn’t help that soon after I came back to America, I contracted a nasty cold. A double whammy.
Happy to report I am now mostly recovered.
Whenever I go on these multi-week excursions outside of the country, I carry with me the gratitude of being able to take paid time off. To be able to go on vacation without worrying about the job, and knowing that any slack left behind will be taken up by my colleagues. That’s worth everything. In a time of great uncertainty and change, I try not to take for granted the fortunate position I find myself in vis a vis employment.
Many more happy returns.
What a chill kill.