Two planes, several movies, a little napping, and something like 19 hours brought me from Taiwan and back here to the states. Overall my flights were uneventful, but the first leg to San Francisco was a bit bumpy and shaking airplanes give me the willies. Mostly I passed the time with movies and thankfully United had a decent selection to choose from. Though I would advise that you avoid the new versions of the Planet of the Apes franchise. Yeesh.

Saturday was my first day back in the US not just as a returning expat on vacation for a bit, but being here for real. So far, it was pretty weird to be back but I think we were all expecting me to say that. Six years is quite a long time to be away from your home country and I'm not looking forward to the coming feelings of displacement and culture shock.. I'd say I'm already neck deep at times. Strange to feel like I don't belong here, or that I'm not really here, or something! I guess my brain is still catching up to the fact that the rest of my body has relocated across the world for good and that, no, I can't go get a dan bing across the street and go to the pool later.

By the way it's 10 degrees (C) during the day. It was 26 when I left Taiwan. Sigh.

I got a few hours sleep Friday night and spent most of Saturday changing mailing addresses online and what not and trying not to freak out. I did get out of the house for a little while when I walked the mile up the street to downtown West Newbury, which consists of a pizza place across the road from a convenience store. Super cosmopolitan. Obviously I enjoyed stuffing my face with large steak bomb and washing it down with a local draft beer and it was actually a nice day for a walk.

I've also gotten a few episodes deep into Peaky Blinders, an English show about a gang in Birmingham in the early 1900's. If you're wondering about the name it comes from the fact that these guys, who were a real gang, put razors in their caps to assist them in slashing up their enemies. Nice guys. I figure I'll stick to watching things on the computer for now, I'm not sure I'm reading to get into the American TV advertising deluge just yet.

I've micro-napped several times while writing this, so I'm going to give myself another 20 minutes or so and then get some sack time. I hope you are well, Taiwan friends. Enjoy your warm weather you lucky bastards.