Fin

I am less than 24 hours from home!  Thanks to a gift of frequent flier miles, I am flying business class.  The best perk besides a fully horizontal seat on the plane?  My own bathroom at the Hong Kong airport in which to shower during the layover.  It hass been about 48 hours since the last shower and I was very grateful to wash the New Delhi sweat and dirt off.  I am trying hard not to become too accustomed to this royal treatment because I have many more years of economy ahead.

While sitting in New Delhi, a whopping 8,000 miles away from home, my mind was already a world away.  I wrote a page-long to do list that I will start ticking off in a few hours.  There are many cities and sites to write about from the last week, but those will have to be postponed a bit.  Photoshopping the photos from Asia will take a backseat to, say, hanging out with my sister (not on the list since it's a given) for the last time until the holidays.

The bizarre thing about coming home from this leg of the trip was apparent even before I left.  Peter hit the nail on the head: we've become such normal presence in each other's lives that it feels almost empty to not have the other there.  It was nice having a friend to help with directions, to eat meals with, and to share in making fun of other people.  During my last day alone in New Delhi, I looked over my shoulder a couple of times half expecting him to be looking at the sun in anticipation of a sneeze.  Sure, there was a lot of silence at the end, but there is a lot of comfort in having a familiar face with you while in unfamiliar places.

Chandigarh Rock Garden

Chandigarh Rock Garden

See you in the States!