heading home, at last
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
As promised on the bizarre airline tickets, it's still the 15th of May. A day I'm sure I'll remember as the longest of my life. If not for having started it by leaving the woman I thought I'd marry, then for the fact that I was up for something like 36 hours of the same calendar 'day'.
I'm back in the funky old Honolulu airport, in - if I'm not mistaken - exactly the same gate area that we used when Sara and I came down. The same immense orange chandeliers. The same, slightly sad bar with it's "Bud" sign. The same absence of Internet kiosks.
It's funny, how I can feel more at home in this Godawful culture than I ever could in Sydney. I have to wonder how much of that was just something I was picking up from the disintegration of my relationship with Sara. It was always the 'States that gave me the creeps, before we went away.
There are always so many little things you forget about, when you leave. If going to Australia is really leaving North American culture. Here are the things I've already noticed.
-The expression 'For f*ck's sakes'
-larger pop (soda) cans the 'power points' (which I can't use with my Aussie-bought notebook; I must get a new cord)
At the same time, there are things I already miss
-Sara, obviously
-decent (and cheap) red wine (I drank some Canadian stuff on the plane)
-Internet connectivity. Don't really miss it yet, but I'm gonna go into withdrawal sooner or later.
I've been reading The Doubter's Companion fairly avidly over the last few days. It has some amusing insights. I recommend it, though as my sister-in-law told me when she first picked it up a couple of years ago, "He just points out problems, and doesn't say how to fix them".
I called my mum on Mother's Day (well, Mother's Day Toronto time) and decided I wasn't up to calling Oma or Yvonne. It's struck me just now that it's probably the first time that I failed to call any of them on that day. I wrote Yvonne a longish letter, and will have to call Oma from Vancouver.
I was in Australia for 16 months. That 'three month trip' sure grew!
As for the relationship, it was three years or so. The last thing she told me was, "You think you're nice, but you're not."
¯_(ツ)_/¯