Last Days, Plane Rides and Jet Lag

I left Adelaide over a week ago now. I haven't been in the US for a week yet. It seems strange to think that all of this started an ended in a great flurry of events--somewhere in there was a long middle. Life transitions too quickly.

I am sitting in the Portsmouth Building (used by students for classes and the computer lab) on the George Eastman Property. This is my second long day of classes. One more to go. I attend Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. It hardly seems real.

Not even two weeks ago I was spending my last day at the Library, rushing upstairs and downstairs in order to finish everything by 5pm and still staying until 6:30. There were lots of chats, afternoon coffee, a long lunch followed by a view of the Waterhouse exhibit. Mostly, there were several goodbyes and some tears once I finally stepped outside, a badge no longer around my neck. It felt real then.

It's hard to be gone now, good to be home with family and back into school, but still very hard. I'm not sleeping well yet and I wasn't eating much for the first few days. It's an adjustment and it won't be over in one week.

I keep going over my last day in Sydney. It was hard to think at the time I'd be so far away in just a day. In some ways, it made it easier to enjoy the time I had left with Shannon. We sat in a pub at Manly Beach, consuming our first big meal of the day of wedges and pizza while I savoured my last Coopers. We sat looking out a window at the beach and everyone passing. We chatted and stared out at the ocean; time stood a little still. We relaxed on the ferry ride back, watching as Sydney came into view.

I'm lucky to have come halfway around the world, not once, but twice to see the view. Many people never do.

In between packing, there were many tears. It's hard to talk about that without aching a little inside. Leaving at Sydney airport was nearly impossible, but the fact that I couldn't afford to pay for another ticket home was enough of an incentive to go.

The flight was a blur of movies, food and restless moments. I slept on the floor of LAX until they boarded my flight. I did not sleep much on my American flight back to Toronto. But, I remember very little of my car ride home. It was good to climb into bed. It was empty, but much better than the last 20+ hours in a plane seat.

And now, it's back to class to finish up the day before I can go home and lay down in bed, hopefully to get a quick nap. There is still much to say, but I have a very tired voice with little interest to say it.