Leaving Eve

 "It's been so long since I've seen your face

And felt a part of this human race

You know, I've been living out of this here suitcase

for way to long."

- Ray Lamontagne "Joelene"

It's hard to believe, but I made it. Tomorrow morning I'll be on the ferry to Singapore never to return. (Well, some of my students really want me to come back when they dig up the time capsule, which seems unlikely money wise, but I told them I would try and, at least part of me, meant it.)

It's been a challenging year but I've learned a lot and have no regrets. If I'd known what day to day life here would be like I don't think I would have come but then I wouldn't have seen volcanoes erupting, Komodo dragons, the Baduy or Borobrodur. I would never have met the people who've made this experience so worthwhile: Adik, her friends in Banyuwangi, the Aussie photographer, the Sea Hermit, my students.

These last few months have been particularly difficult, very few things have gone the way I'd hoped, which sent me on a very long circuitous search for a place to land. In January I started searching for some way to begin working on my B.Ed when I returned but every step forward I was greeted with another obstacle. I tried looking for work but, few responses and a couple of scams later, I found myself back at the start with a possible full time job in education back home in Canada which would allow me to return to Uni to get some required courses to apply to the Faculty of Ed.

On the one hand, I would really like to see more of the world, but mostly I am ecstatic about the idea of staying in Canada, at least for a while. I have to agree with Dorothy, there really is no place like home. Of course, with the way this year's been going, there's still a very good chance I'll end up on this side of earth again come fall.

For now I'm off on a two week tour of Vietnam, my plans to see Cambodia and Laos having been, like so many other plans lately, not feasible due to financial and time constraints. I expect to resume posting with my 'Nam adventures sometime around the middle of July.

Until then, bismillah.