It's been a little over a week since I've been back and things have mostly returned to normal. The flight back was much better than the flight over. I was on a plane with about 20 Mormon kids heading out on their mission, so as you can imagine it wasn't exactly the party plane. I had my usual excuse ("I'm Jewish") in case I was seated next to one who wanted to chat, but it turned out not to be necessary and it was a peaceful flight over. The movie selection had changed a bit, and I ended up watching My Week With Marilyn (2 1/2 stars); Django Unchained (3 stars); This Is 40 (3 stars); and two episodes of Keeping Up With The Kardashians (absolutely terrible, but I was delirious by this point in the flight).
When I got back to work on Thursday I was greeted by two stacks of orchestral sets to process, each about as tall as I am. That took a full 8 sneeze-inducing hours, after which I went home covered in dust. Friday I had a couple of meetings to go over the MOLA conference, and by Monday is was business as usual. I've finally broken the habit of randomly waking up at 4 in the morning, and I've officially eaten all of the junk food I brought back.
This time coming back was a little bit more sad for some reason. The first year in Australia was just a fun excuse to do something different and gain a little bit of experience in my field, but this time the realization really hit that this is my life. I'm staying busy and don't feel all that lonely, but it's hard to make friends as great as the ones back in Seattle; they are truly irreplaceable! It's hard seeing my family and friends do all these things without me, but at the same time I know it's my choice to be here.
