Letters from Vermont

In the early days of jet lag, some people will suggest you attempt to correct jet lag by forcing yourself to stay up late.  These ideas are good in theory.  However, you might just overshoot and stay up til 4 am, sleep until 4 pm, and then be unable to sleep the next night and thus be completely screwed for work the next day.

Well after a full two days of travel, I’m in Pune!  We arrived late at night on the 31st, after a not-too-painful fourteen hour journey and went straight to a Mumbai hotel.  This morning we drove to Pune, and now are hanging out at the Program Center until our host is ready for us.  

Its six in the evening here, and I’m feeling pretty disoriented from the nap I just took.  But I’m looking forward to going to my new home soon and changing into some fresh clothes.  As you would anticipate, its incredibly hot here and I’m kind of gross at this point.

But other than the travel fatigue, I’m feeling really good so far.  The program center and staff are all pretty much unchanged.  I’m looking forward to getting some rest and starting to prepare for the students arrival next week!  

More soon, 

R

Overall, I’ve been bearing up pretty well with goodbyes. 

For the most part, I’ve been able to space them out so its not overwhelming.  It lets me focus on enjoying my friends for that last hour or two - whether its getting manicures or drinking wine- and then you say goodbye and it feels like all the rest of the year’s goodbyes.  That is to say, not goodbye but see you soon, probably tomorrow or the next day.  Except now it is, until Christmas or someone visits or who knows when. 

I didn’t really get to say goodbye to anyone in my major, because graduation was such a shit show and I was just done.  Thats my one regret, that it was over so fast that I didn’t think about “this could be the last time I see these people”.

The only time I really “made a scene” over goodbyes was during my swan song, which was emotional not only because I was saying goodbye not only to my friends in the Wash, but to the Wash itself - the Thursday night institution.

But yesterday afternoon it hit me like a ton of bricks that things were changing in an almost irreversible way.  It had a lot to do with the fact that C was in VA, and got in touch, and we talked and he’s going into Army Officer Training for a year.

Its the big changes like that I’m worried I’ll miss out on - like when a good friend from high school’s boyfriend came out, and I heard about by chance at a career fair. I also worry about missing the camaraderie that comes from being with your friends day in and day out.  

But I know from those older and wiser than I, that this change is something that happens to everyone.  I know that in “real life”, friendship takes more planning and coordination and effort.  That keeping in touch takes work, as does making new friends.  So I’m getting my coping strategies together.

I’ve got skype all set up (rcv2rcv) so I can chat easily, and stationary so I can write letters.   And I’m also thinking about where I can volunteer or meet people in Pune, so I get to know people outside of my work.  And of course, there’s Tumblr - my favorite way to keep in touch. 

<3

R