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My flight took off the morning of Tues, Nov 24th. My flight landed about 10:30 p.m. Tues, Nov 24th. In between was 22 hours in the air, and about 8 hours in airports in Brisbane-Auckland-LA-Calgary-Edmonton (and crossing the international dateline, which made the takeoff-landing in the same day possible).
I am back in Edmonton, back with my soulmate, back with my friends who share significant chunks of history with me. It feels great to revive "In-jokes" with people who actually get it because they were there. Now the really odd part- I now miss my Aussie mates. Friends who may not have the length of time between us; rather we have been melded together in a crucible of intense experience. It is no doubt refreshing to have non-Med buddies with actual lives around, but I do miss the sheer bio-geek-fest that is medical school. And I miss my cat already. Stupid, expensive cat.
And I am tired. It's almost 1 a.m. as I am typing. I am WIDE AWAKE.....Nuts. My brain is s...l...o...w...l...y adjusting to Mountain Standard Time, and Rob is helping by not allowing sleeping in during the week. Most of the week has just been chilling at home with jaunts out to look at the new construction around the city, which is everywhere, and to work on my new computer's case mod (I will allow Rob to expound on that some other time, as he is better at telling that kind of stuff). So nice to just hang out with my honey.
There are some flavours you just can't duplicate outside of Canada. We went out for BP's pizza and Molson Canadian Beer Tuesday night (Carlton Draft in Aus comes close, but not quite). Tim Horton's was the first stop Wednesday morning, where 2 XL coffees warmed my insides. Gee, I missed my Timmy's. And Burger King on Saturday, for "Celebratory Whoppers". So I've had my quota for starch, fat, salt and sugar until next week now.
Rob (the introvert) obviously loves me a whole bunch, as he planned a party for me (the extrovert) on Sunday afternoon. About 25 people dropped by throughout the afternoon to welcome me back and enjoy some time hanging out at Barbra D's place (also introvert, and I am grateful for her willingness to host). Through the process, Rob has perfected the Pina Colada (with Bundaberg Rum, of course). Yum!
So we are ecstatically happy to be in the same place at the same time, as well as re-learning how to live like a functional couple again. Thanks again for reading, and all your support for us over the last year.