Nearly There

Only four and a half weeks to go and I’ll be home!  For the first time in 2 years.  

Well I’ll be back in the UK anyway–I’m not really sure where “home” is these days. But it will be great to see my family for Christmas, and after that possibly living the life of an itinerant couch-surfer for 3 weeks, catching up with dear friends, many of whom seem to have participated in the British Baby Boom this year.

Of course I’m looking forward to seeing everyone, but I’m wondering how I’m going to feel about being back there in the least hospitable part of the year–dark, cold and probably wet.  Or snowy. Which might be nice but then again I had just lived through 2 of the worst winters in recent memory before I came out to India, and could quite happily do without all the disruption to public transport if I’m going to be zipping up and down the country.  I think I would prefer crisp air, frosty fields, blue skies and everyone remarking on how mild it is.

I’m also wondering what it will feel like to be back there.  Many of my early blog posts here were related to culture shock, and supposedly there’s such a thing as “reverse culture-shock” that you experience when you go back home.

One thing is for certain–it’s going to be weird to be cold again.  I’ve only felt properly cold twice while I’ve been in India, once in Ahmedbad in the January just after I first arrived, and again a few weeks ago when I spent the night sleeping out on the sand dunes in the Thar desert in Rajasthan.  Until then I had literally forgotten what being cold felt like.  Meanwhile here in Bangalore, all the small children are wearing knitted balaclavas now that the mornings are “chilly” (about 14-15 degrees)…

Time feels like it’s speeding up all of a sudden, and I’m counting the days.