No Place Like Home

As much as I enjoyed my Europe trip (on the last night in Rome, I truly didn't want to leave, wanted to spend at least a few more days in the Eternal City), I am so glad to be home.

I get homesick rather easily, which is why I was pleasantly surprised to not feel much homesickness on this trip. Maybe once or twice, I longed for the creature comforts of my very American lifestyle (ah, hot water and good water pressure, and toilet seats!!) or the wildly diverse range of cheap ethnic foods one can indulge in in the Bay Area ("shall we have Ethiopian, Indian, Filipino or Japanese tonight, babe?"). But overall, I was totally immersed in and enjoying my European experience. (Well, there was one negative experience with a xenophobic Italian woman at the end of the trip that made me wish I could click my ruby-slippered heels three times and be back home, but I'll get into that later).

It's the little (or maybe they're not so little) things that make one appreciate home more than any other place on earth: The way the light shines in my apartment, with its white walls and clean, shiny hard wood floor. The feel of the cool wood under my bare feet, familiar yet somehow strange and new after two weeks of living in hotels and strangers' homes. A hot shower in your own bathroom after a long, long day (we were in the air and on the road for almost 24 hours yesterday). The comforting smells of home--clean sheets, clothes, blankets--the scents you take for granted when you are here and that you forget when you are away.

The time change from Rome to the Bay was 9 hours (right now it's nearly 4pm in Italy) so my body is a little disoriented, but I'm feeling simultaneously refreshed, exhilirated and body-fatigued to be home right now. I feel that I am back in my own place, where I belong.