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just returned from a three-week trip back to MN. it was good to be home. sort of. somewhat melancholy post to follow.

we’re ready to go home for good. not that here isn’t great, because it is. but it’s been three years and we miss our friends and the associated events that surround them. so it was somewhat bittersweet to be back in MN at the height of summer, grilling, lakes, frisbee, active outdoor time season, knowing that it was just a teaser.

i think it’s getting noticeable now how long we’ve been away in that even with close friends it’s easy to feel like an outsider. there’s just a lot of life that goes on that we miss out on and it takes a bit of work to get up to speed in the conversations. and from a logistical point of view, it will be nice to be able to accept an invite to a wedding, a bbq, just out for a drink, without spending $2000 per and flying 24 hours to do it.

i think we get this idealized version of both places in our heads, though. the US has internet! electricity is always there! you can drink the water! all your time will be spent with your BFFs! eat like kings! the roads are like flowing ribbons of mercury, speeding you to your destination! actually, now that i write this, most of that was true.

so i guess most of the letdown was when we came back to uganda. we got to our house and it hadn’t rained and had been really hot the whole time we were gone so the garden looked sickly. there was just this stale feeling to the air. our best friends who have been here the whole time moved back to the states last month, so there was a feeling of aloneness. it’s been years since i’ve seen it, but i think tom hanks finally arriving home from the island in castaway. it was kinda like that.

so it’s the home stretch. i’ll be back in MN this fall to bring back a bunch of our belongings and move home the cats before we all come back for real at the end of the year. oh yeah, and look for a job. and a house. and a car. can you imagine us arriving at the airport in december after three and a half years on the equator with a boy, two cats, twelve duffle bags, and an 80 degree temperature change, starting there at square one? there aren’t too many guest rooms that can accommodate that. so yeah, a little preconnaissance should help the cause. stepping back, i think it will be kind of cool to start everything from scratch. but at the moment it’s a bit overwhelming.