A lot of the things over here are the same as they are back home. Things that are almost comforting when you see them. The people are mostly the same too. Maybe a bit shorter than usual, but you can spot a group of giggling teenage girls or the nerdy guy pretty quickly. It's the little things though that are disarming. In America everything has a sound or at least some presence. Everyone needs to let everyone else know that they exist, even if they want to be left alone. Here there have been so many times that someone silently moves closer to you without you realizing. It's not anything sinister either. It's more that personal bubbles are considerably smaller and at least with people selling something they know that they need to be near you in case you show interest. Back home there are really two settings for salespeople. Either they are right in your face or they are nowhere to be found. Here they quietly hover near you. In some cases they are close enough to me to be in my party.
Having spent four days on a relaxing island, where the people are friendly and fairly laid back, it's strange coming to a big city again. I can't tell if it's good or bad. Everything feels like it's western influenced, but not quite western. It's like someone's idea of what America must be like. Apparently that world is full of KFC joints because they are everywhere here. It's ok because this is really meant as a jumping off point for other areas. Still it's both nice to see familiar and somewhat different versions of things back home and a good reminder of the things we're fine with trying to avoid not only on this trip, but in our lives in general.
We have been traveling for a month now. It doesn't feel that long and yet it seems like forever ago that we were home. Thankfully with technology today it's so easy to stay in contact, even though talking to someone isn't the same as seeing them. Life goes on without you while you're off having adventures and it's hard to not feel a little bit like a ghost to the people back home. Gone, but not really gone. There is still plenty of time left in this portion of the trip and I'm making sure that I don't spend my time looking forward to things rather than being here now. That said I am looking forward to getting back out of the city and onto strange and different things like tea and honey from the highlands.
