nearing the end

My time in Sri Lanka has come to an end. I have only three days left and this may well be my last blog entry.

Its always the most sad before you are about to leave, its when you miss people the most and get all nostalgic about how wonderful everything was. I am trying to be reasonable about leaving but this always happens to me. What is odd is that I don’t miss people here, I miss the people I am about to see. Perhaps my anticipation of seeing my friends and family elsewhere makes me think of them a lot and then miss them more than usual.

I work up this morning and everything was perfectly normal and familiar. I had to remind myself that I do indeed life in Sri Lanka which is a foreign country in which I am a foreigner. I have gotten to accustomed to everything to the point where it has become ordinary. I almost have to pinch myself to remind myself that I am in the third world, halfway around the world from people I love and my real home.

I am ready to go. My project ended up being successful, I made great friends and I got to see a lot of the country.

What I will miss:

Getting a massage whenever I want

Being 15 min from a swim-able beach

Living 100 yards from the ocean

Cheap, cheap clothes

Short eats

Elephants at every occasion

Public holidays

Sarong-wearing by both genders

Chili crab and seafood in general

The Sri Lankan accent (What to do machang?)

What I will not miss:

Waiting for taxis to come to your house

Security checks

Bomb blasts

Pictures of politicians everywhere (not even good looking ones)

Haggling for rickshaws but not haggling for fruit

Body odor and the smell of rancid coconut oil in the hair of the person in front of me

Mosquitoes

Expats who think they are better than everyone

Russian prostitutes who hang out in hotels

Food so spicy it makes you want to die