Adjustment!

The Yin and Yang of travel….

Once again, I find myself half way around the world from home wondering what the hell I am doing here. This always seems to be my initial response when I first arrive in a new location. My family and friends know it well because I whine and have a little pity party for myself.

Last night as I tried get some sleep, my spirits were in the dumps. I always wonder why I leave my family and the comfort of home for this. “This” being a small room, far from home in a hot, sultry climate and a very different culture—of course, this is seen from my perspective of total exhaustion. Poor me! I wallow in self-centered misery and pity for the night and again in the morning.

I have a headache this morning and realize I haven’t had a cup of coffee for almost 36 hours. No wonder! So I find the electric pot, hand grind some freshly roasted Ugandan coffee and dig out my trusty Aeropress coffee maker. Two cups of coffee later, things are looking up!

So this morning I open my suitcases and start to unpack. The good news is that my luggage arrived and is in pretty good shape. When I checked in at the St. Louis airport, my two suitcases weighed 49.5 and 49.8 pounds. The American Airlines guy who checked me in was VERY impressed. His comment was “Amazing!” since the weight limit is 50lbs per bag! I am a strong advocate of buying those small travel luggage scales…..they work very well and are worth their weight in gold since overweight luggage charges are HUGE.

The bad news is that the quart bag of flax seed I ground and packaged had burst EVERYWHERE in my big suitcase. I put flax in my morning cereal (good for the heart!) and oh my, that finely ground powder is on everything…..quite a huge mess. The other bad news is that the bathroom cabinet in my room is totally unusable this year. I opened up the drawers and it is filled with termites….everywhere! They have migrated from the window ledge (which I noticed last year) into the cabinet. Little tunnels and bugs are crawling over the entire thing. Hopefully the dorm people can help me fix it up. At the least, I want to get the bugs out…

And I am also sad to see that some of the beautiful silk wallpaper they put on the walls in my room last year has mildewed and molded. This tells you something about the high level of humidity here. I don’t think it is a health hazard…..but rather an indication that they haven’t had many people use “my” room. I am hopeful that running the AC continually will keep things stable and the mold at bay.

So…….two cups of coffee in my system and some organization of my space….and I am amazed how my spirits have risen. I have a meeting with the faculty this morning to set up my class and I will probably be pretty busy once things get rolling.

I hope to keep this blog updated with more frequency than I did last summer. But no news from me means that either the internet is down….or I am having too much fun and don’t have time to post!

So, once again….stay tuned! Pity Party is OVER!