With the idea that perhaps saturation will eventually lead to catharsis, and also because I really want to see all this loveliness written down, I present to you a list. (This is specifically the "doing" list. The "eating" list is forthcoming.)
Things I Absolutely, Positively MUST Do When I Finally Get Home
Much love to all my peeps back home, especially my awesome Dad who is having a knee replacement tomorrow! Thinking of you and sending positive healing thoughts across the Atlantic. I will see you soon!
Things I Absolutely, Positively MUST Do When I Finally Get Home
- Sit with my folks on the back deck, in front of a chiminea fire, drinking excellent cab sauv and snacking on crackers and cheese
- Sit with my folks on the back porch with G&Ts and listen to the Prairie Home Companion
- Take a bubble bath
- Trip up to New Jersey to visit family
- Visit Will and Ally at their beautiful home and enjoy their newly renovated outdoor space
- Epic Ping and Mary Weekend in the City! (Already being planned... DC is not ready...)
- Day of winery visits with Matt
- Hanging out in some capacity (maybe that cool bar in Gainesville with that awesome band?) with Bart and Tara
- PX with Jeff and Lucy (and others? Followed by awesomeness at Pat Troy's?)
- If there is still hockey, watching a Cup game at Bugsy's with assembled relevant personnel (you know who you are!)
- Some sort of comprehensive friend-gathering event so I can give out 50+ hugs to everyone I have missed
- Walk around Burke Lake
- Work in the woodshop with my Dad and succeed in completing a Project
- Smithsonian Day
- Trip into Northwest to visit former colleagues and catch up on office gossip (while enjoying champagne on the W's rooftop terrace, natch!)
- Day in Old Town Alexandria with lunch at Madeline's, a tour of the Torpedo Factory and afternoon river cruise
- Church (Father Martin represent!) and Farmers' Market with Mom
- Watch all three original Star Wars movies with my Dad
- Star Trek TNG EPIC MARATHON OF SUPREME GREATNESS
- Buffy/Angel marathon
- Finally watch Bones Season 5
- Have the neighbors over so I can shock and amuse them with my horror stories
- Fall asleep on the back porch
- Visit Fair Lakes Whole Foods (skirting the line into "food" territory here)
- Get a pedicure
- Scrabble Night
- Visit a dentist
- Dinner and movie in Shirlington
- Hiking at Great Falls
- Rockband
Much love to all my peeps back home, especially my awesome Dad who is having a knee replacement tomorrow! Thinking of you and sending positive healing thoughts across the Atlantic. I will see you soon!
Too bad there's no like button for this :)
ReplyDeleteI am a Georgian guy currently living in Toronto (Canada). It’s kind of funny to hear that you need to go back home to get a pedicure. But I understand very well your homesickness, and if I am to do the list of “Things I Absolutely, Positively MUST Do When I Finally Get Home” I would do almost the same but in Georgian equivalent.
ReplyDeleteLet me share some thoughts. When you immigrate or move for few years to another country (especially when you are 30 or older) which is VERY DIFFERENT from yours, first five years might be very frustrating. And it doesn’t matter if you move from a so called developed country to a so called developing country or vice versa, as long as you move to a different part of the world where they have different culture and speak different language, this is what your thoughts and feelings going to be (just few examples):
•People often speak too loud in this country
•Their food and lifestyle make me fat
•Customer service is terrible here
•They have no idea or very stereotypical idea about my country
•Even simple tasks are problems here
•Gender roles are just wrong in this country
•Transportation is uncomfortable
•It is amazing how people love to eat and drink here
•Their manner of using tools of communication (phones, cell phones, emails and etc.) is weird
•Their major ways of communication are very inefficient
•Their way of doing things in general is inefficient
•It will take few generations before these people understand the true meaning of civilization
•Everything takes ridiculously long time here
•Their language is poor to express certain ideas
•They use the same words again and again thousand times during the day
•They copy each other’s phraseology when they speak
•Food is more diverse in my country
•It’s very difficult to find proper shoes here
•Their understanding of hygiene is very weird
•They are clean people in something but at the same time they don’t notice screamingly disgusting things
•Their understanding of health and healthcare is very weird
•Their level of general education is very low
•They don’t appreciate my time here
•There are not many things to do in this country, life is boring here
•They dress so weird, especially elder people
•These people have very limited understanding about the world outside of their country
•They think they are tolerant culture but in fact they are very intolerant
•There are too many smokers in this country
•Neighbor countries that I’ve visited are so much better
•Winds blow stronger here
Westerners reading this will agree that all this happened with them in Georgia, but they might be little surprised to hear that this is exactly what Georgians (and many others) experience in America, or Canada, or Australia, or UK and etc. What I’m trying to say is that it’s not about a country that we move in, it’s about us.
Hello George. It is always such a surprise to me when I find a stranger out there is actually taking an interest in my ramblings.
DeleteI certianly appreciate your comments, and agree that the Tbilisi wind is something to be reckoned with! While my year in Georgia has definitely not been without its series of challeneges, I am grateful for the chance to experience a different culture for a time. And while I look forward to coming home, I know that I will miss Georgia once I am there.
I hope you are enjoying Toronto, and best of luck with your own homesickness list when you finally return to Georgia.
I really don't know how I feel about your Old Town day without me... :( Sad. Want to come home too!!
ReplyDeleteIt will be weird and sad walking down King St. without you. I will probably spend the entire time thinking "Oh, Eve would love this," and "I bet Eve would totaly choose THIS dessert from Madeline's!" I'll come home and watch that Captured Women movie and drink Asti in your honor.
DeleteYou've got to get a game day in Richmond in there. :)
ReplyDelete