Well, the postcard sure looked good...

I think I'll write a song about that. I have very mixed feelings about coming back. Mixed feelings about the city. Mixed feelings about the people. Mixed feelings about the churches. Mixed feelings about the quality of life. Mixed feelings about my purpose here. You could bottle me and sell me in with the mixed drinks in the supermarket.

On top of that, living with roommates is a very very tricky situation. Especially since I feel like a guest...but I am paying rent, so...a few of the challenges ahead are: not enough space; different hours of waking and sleeping; do you like it hot or cold when you sleep? are you okay with having crumbs on the floor of the kitchen? how often should we take out the trash? dusting? vacuuming? mopping? will you have "friends" staying over? will we always keep trash in the freezer....

I like living by myself.

The neighborhood is an adjustment, for sure. No longer do I have my nice health food stores. I am going to check out the grocery situation in a little bit, but I'm a little worried about what I'll find. Light soy milk. Please, have light soy milk. I haven't seen a bagel shop, and I haven't read or heard this much Spanish since Mexico! I feel like I'm in a different country. I'm such a chicken. It's so easy for me to explore New York when things are sterile and expensive and white. It's much harder when I'm the minority. I hope I become stronger from this experience--stronger and more flexible...like bamboo.

This is the view from the plane. I want to live on a cloud.