9/6/90 12am St. Stephens

Today had it's up's and downs. Even though it was a day early (2 days if you count time zones) I decided to call it my birthday.

At lunch they gave me the massive box that my dad shipped and they all watched as I pulled out a 12 pack of trail mix, multiple bags of sun flower seeds (which I'm currently chewing), a nerf set, an 18 pack of trident, beef jerky, books, Aprils beautiful bracelet, and an air mattress with "air pump sold separately" boldly written on the front of the box . Yuvraj, who makes bracelets himself, was very impressed by the bracelet, and my Naga (Mayang) enjoyed the beef jerky
"Wow. Are you really missing sunflower seeds?" ..."no... haven’t thought of them since I've been here" "What about trail mix was it your favorite snack?" ... "no.. I rarely EVER eat trail mix". Then I opened the card and Abel read over my shoulder everything out loud that he saw me looking at such as “Ya'll suck butt!” and “Nigga for life!” .It was nice to see everyone’s face.

They thought it was really funny that you guys would spend over $100.00 shipping
a box filled mostly with food over-seas, but I appreciated it. The tastes gave me this weird high…a strange euphoria that lasted 20 minutes. I was very confused by the familiar tastes. It felt like I was in the hostel, but the hostel was located on my property in California. As I chewed the trident I was up in my dad's airplane on the way to oceano. As I chewed the trail mix I had my back up against a tree in Yosemite, desperately thirsty, listing to Jordan begging his dad not to call the rangers for help.

Shortly after I came off my trident high, I had to gather up a few people and leave for the antodia orphanage to do some English tutoring. When we got to the metro station, I swiped my card and then put my card in my pocket. Julie and me packed ourselves into the most crowded tram I had been in yet. I couldn't move. The pressure from the multitude of unbathed men compacted me from every angle until I was packed into a small concentrate of myself. I had the thought "wow they could all have their hands in my pockets and I wouldn't know the difference".....well..... they did.

As I got off the metro and made my way to the exit where you have to swipe your card to leave, I patted down my pockets for my metro card and felt nothing. "hmm I distinctly remember putting that in my pockets". I checked my bag... nothing. Luckily I had about 20 rupees on the card (about 40 cents). "Jokes on them" I thought to myself, without realizing that they had also snagged my cell phone my 2000-rupee long distance card. When I realized that I had lost both of those I was a little crushed. I hadn't talked to April in over a week, and the climax of this week was going to be calling her.

So I went on and tutored the kids, bought a new metro card and got back on the metro with Amy to her house where her and her family were going to cook a homemade dinner for me. I had mentioned a couple weeks back that I was kinda missing Mexican food. So... they decided to make it for me. Homemade tortillas, beans, rice, cheese, salsa, chicken fajita, and tortilla chips. It tasted great. Very sweet of them.

I felt bad that they were going to such great lengths to make me feel at home, and I think they were trying to cure my homesickness... when I'm not actually home sick. Home is here for me right now. The home that I came from seems imagined and made up. Not that I'm not looking forward to going back... but it just doesn't seem real.