Sunday, 21 November 2010

less than a week, seriously?

my brother-in-law, before i left los angeles, told me that it was amazing that i would travel so short a time and yet be so far away in so many different ways. i didn't understand, not really - the reality of a 16 hour flight + 1 night in dubai for a 15 hour layover + another 5 hour flight was looming too large for me to consider his words, especially since they began with 'travel so short a time'. 

i didn't understand, really, until a full 6 days after i left los angeles and i spoke to my sister online and discovered, to my absolute shock and awe, that i had left less than a week ago. i had come so far, from los angeles to malakal, in culture, in way of life, in daily realities, in so many other insignificant (yet significant) ways, that it seemed impossible to me that less than a week ago, only a 16 hour flight + 1 night in dubai for a 15 hour layover + another 5 hour flight away, i was sitting in los angeles, chowing down on pho and tofu rolls and now i was in malakal, struggling to make spaghetti sauce.

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