A Week After Re-Entry: The Start of the Adjustment

Four weeks ago, I reluctantly pulled out of a planned booze cruise around the islands off the Southern Vietnamese coast near Nha Trang. A minor burn on my left leg and a scraped right knee had developed infections that treatment with peroxide, iodine and antibiotic cream just wasn't solving. In fact, the infection had moved beyond the original injuries, causing multiple pustules to form on both legs. Both legs were also severely inflamed, making the act of merely standing aggravatingly painful. Thus I decided my day would be better spent seeking out professional medical attention. This proved to be a good thing, since I was apparently three or four days away from an overwhelming bacterial infection -- as opposed to the merely aggressive bacterial infection with which I was saddled -- with bacteremia and septic shock just around the corner.

Three weeks ago, I made my way around Ho Chi Minh City's Reunification Palace; where North Vietnamese Army tanks crashed through the gates of the then Saigon Presidential Palace, forcing the surrender of the South Vietnamese government and finally reunifying the country. Later, I took in some amazing and disturbing photography at the War Remnants Museum, while the previous day had been spent crawling around the old Viet Cong tunnels at Củ Chi. This was the culmination of my travels in Vietnam, where I had multiple opportunities to learn that the Americans of the 60s and 70s were bad. Very, very bad.

Two weeks ago; I had to fight off dehydration, minor bouts of sunstroke, and hordes of wee Cambodian children trying to extract every dollar I was carrying in exchange for fridge magnets or post cards or cold drinks or bracelets or wooden flutes. But it was totally worth it in order to spend four full days exploring just about every temple in and around Angkor.

One week ago, I started out the day up in Birmingham, England and ended it back in London. My final day on the road was spent catching up with old friends from secondary school and university; the reunions were made all the more gratifying by the fact that I hadn't seen them in years, if not decades.

I'm not doing anything quite as exciting these days. I'm moving my Mountain of Crap™ out of my brother and sister-in-law's basement and back into my apartment. I'm slowly sorting through that Mountain of Crap™ to see what's really worth keeping and what is entirely extraneous. I'm updating my resumé.

Welcome back to reality.