Afghanistan would have been easier…

I have learned important life lessons prior to this travel. I was quite the smug little bourgeois traveller typical of backpackers, believing myself too good for the likes of lonely planet. But I’ve been taught humility, mainly in the “Never, ever, pack your apartment until you have a visa in your hands, doesn’t matter if the embassy assures you it will be done by the first week of the month”. I still haven’t had my shots, because surely if I have escaped Dengue and Leprosy, both endemic to my city, and eaten off the Muslim neighbourhood of Xi’ian, nothing bad will happen. Faith) is the last thing one should lose when travelling (unlike dignity which is kind of the third thing one loses).

I truly believe it is the mark of the well seasoned traveller to recognize that actually, the USA’s Visa application system is not that bad at all. They tell you right away if they will deny you a VISA, the fees aren’t that volatile, and you actually know how many days it’ll take to get your VISA. Or perhaps I should wear this badge proudly, and increase my hipster creed by talking about how there are some countries, so off the tourist rail, that their VISA procedures are ontological mysteries, where thousands of philosophic dissertations have been written about, all citing Heidegger, or Nietzsche. Perhaps compare it to Sartre’s Existentialism, as a sort of addendum: hell is not other people, it’s bureaucracy.

So I’m in this sort of in-between (limbo!). I cannot say proper goodbyes (which I didn’t even want to. Goodbyes are never good when planned. Anyway, I’ve been in a long goodbye since May, so I’m actually done, and just want to get done with it. I’m actually more excited about the welcome back thing.). I’m crashing off different couches, alternating because as grandmas know “Both the Visits and the death, stink after a 3 days”.