Coming Home: looking forward to the quotidian

Good Things About Returning To USA:

• Drinking water from any tap, not always having to be searching for a sealed blue water cooler jug to refill my bottle from. (Bottled water was about 50 cents for 1.5 L, but I dislike using all that plastic and would much rather "refill", and also that adds up because I am always thirsty!)
• Understanding what people are saying. Being able to ask what's in that banana leaf. Commenting on someone's hairstyle. Asking for directions.
• Having more than 4 shirts in my wardrobe. 
• Staying clean for more than 14 hours at a time. (This was true mostly for bicycling days)
• Killing mosquitoes for sport hunting only, not as malaria protection. 
• Trusting that toilets in coffee shops will have toilet paper and soap. And even a way to dry one's hands!
• Fearlessly eating foods and drinking iced drinks knowing they absolutely most likely do not contain amoebas or typhoid.
• Kale, peanut butter, real cheese, real chocolate.
• Knowing I pay the same price as everybody else in the shop for a shirt, some fruit, cookies. Also, knowing that the marked price is the price and not dependent on your negotiation skills. 

 That said, I have had a marvelous time exploring and observing and experiencing here. Although this comes with the frustration and challenge of traveling. I am not sad to leave Southeast Asia, though I will be nostalgic about it. I feel like my hunger for bicycling and eating delicious food has not been sated, however, but all good things must come to an end.