People have asked us about adjusting now that we are back in the US. It was 18 degrees Fahrenheit when we woke up this morning and I’d have to admit, we’ve been cold a lot since returning. Fortunately because it has been cold a lot of the time, we have had clear and sunny days that has helped given we had four cloudy days in 14 months in SL. Another adjustment has been our skin. We didn’t realize how the humidity affected our skin until we came home. We have itchy, stinging skin due to dryness. We both slather body lotion on and listen to the sucking sound from our skin! The other major adjustment has been sticker shock. After living in the land of low cost everything, we have been shocked with a number of purchases here: six pair of socks for $45.00 about knocked Ron off his feet. Our first restaurant meal was $60 not our usual $20 in SL. We have had to have some repairs done since returning. The car needed a new battery and we had to have the power steering repaired. The basement drain pipe needed clearing and that was $190. Oh boy. That job took less than 20 minutes. Then the gutters needed work. So we have decided we are forever ruined by SL prices and may never recover! HA! So we are making our way through our to do list each day, crossing off two or three items and adding three or four items. At first we were somewhat overwhelmed at all there was to do but just took it step by step and have made progress each day. We still are working our way through medical appointments. Last week was the dentist and this week the ophthalmologist and travel clinic to finish our Hepatitis B shot series.

Other adjustments have created laughter between us. It took opening three drawers in the kitchen before I remembered where we kept the knives. When driving, we often take the wrong route or wrong turns when trying to get to our destinations because we have forgotten the short cuts etc. Ron always says right after making a wrong turn, ‘We’re getting old, babe’. So we are experiencing lots of re-learning. Let’s just say it is humbling at times.

We were blessed to have had a family, The Hunts, live on our home from November 2005 until July 2006 and a couple who are really good friends lived here from July until mid September. The house was in great shape from that standpoint. The tenant in the apartment left when his lease was up in November. I can’t remember if I mentioned that we had hired a property management firm to manage the place while we were gone. They found a tenant for the apartment who turned out to be a gun toting Nazi! No joke, he hung a Nazi flag in the bathroom and carried a gun every day. We aren’t using that firm anymore. We are also grateful he left before our return and without incident. There’s some irony here….

I have waked up three times not knowing what country I am in: first I say ‘Am I in Colombo? No, am I in Phetchaburi? No. Oh, I’m home in Vancouver. It hasn’t happened now for over a week so I must be settled now.

I forgot to mention some animals have moved into our attic space while we were gone. We are pretty sure it is a squirrel or two. Just one more issue to add to our to do list. But we have checked off so many things: the office is organized and set up with two computer work stations, the hot water heater is repaired and functioning, the car battery has been replaced and the power steering fixed, the sewer line is unclogged, and the gutters are re-hung. We have three major projects on the list but these will have to wait due to our NEXT ADVENTURE!

TADA!! When we were in SL, a colleague of Ron’s visited us from California near the end of our time in SL. Zarka was so intrigued by Ron’s work she decided to start looking for opportunities on the Internet. She sent Ron an email of a listing she thought suited his background more than hers. In an effort to keep his name ‘out there’ he applied and lo and behold got interviewed and hired for a consulting job in Serbia. The job will start February 19th and go until March 2. He will be working for the UN Development Program and helping them to develop curriculum for local government in southern Serbia. This is exactly what he was doing in SL. I am going with him since we aren’t sure if this will lead to more work in Serbia or not and we might as well take advantage of this opportunity. Our plan had been to take a road trip to the East coast when we returned but now we are thinking about ‘batching’ our trips. Ron has two two-week trips to SL between now and September to finish out his contract. Since we are half way there in Serbia we will try to go from Serbia to SL. In addition his annual ICMA International Committee meeting is scheduled for mid-April in Dublin so we are thinking about going to Thailand and hang out at ‘our’ house in Phetchaburi while waiting for the meeting date. Today we are going to see a travel agent because this trip is way too complicated for us to try to put together. Then we will be able to assess just how possible this will be. If it is possible we will take the road trip in fall.

Given the chance for another travel adventure I will continue the blog in February when we go to Serbia if you are interested in following our adventures. We have gotten lots of positive comments on our blog and we really appreciate it. The blog has been a great way for me to be more observant during our travels as well as giving me a means to record our adventure. In addition it has been an excellent way to communicate with so many friends and family members. We thank our son David for the idea since neither of us had any idea what a blog was when he suggested it.

So the adventure continues. Thanks again for your readership and your comments.

I wrote this over a week ago and yes, we will do the Feb-May trip to Serbia, SL, Thailand and Ireland.

Tricia and Ron