Home sweet home...

Jet lag is the culprit. It is 8:15 am, and I think I have been awake, tossing restlessly about in bed since 6. This comes after a night of merciless stomach pains no doubt caused by the poor shock to my system of America's "natural" diet. Night one was fine-- my mom made a great dinner for my friends and me, and my tummy was as happy as could be. But yesterday, in restaurants, I could eat only half a sandwich at lunch with my dad and a shrimp appetizer for dinner with my mom, and one of those? a combination maybe? left me in the bathroom for the entire rest of my Thursday night.

On a more pleasant note, the time home so far has been quick, busy, but great overall. My best friend K picked me up at the airport, and we finally got to catch up on everything over the past year. K is my technology averse friend who has yet to accept the convenience of communications through such means as E-MAIL! so compared to my other friends, we have been in far less contact. But how do you know your best friend is your best friend? We picked up right where we left off, as if we had been talking every day for the past 9 months.

K and I could not be more opposite when it comes to lifestyle. We stopped by her house, which she began renting with her boyfriend not long ago. Located outside the "town" of Nazareth, it has a big backyard with a shed that her boyfriend built for his motorcycle, and she has the inside beautifully decorated like a big country home. My boyfriend rides a scooter, because it's the most convenient form of transportation in the metropolis of Tokyo, and I am selling all of my furniture (which wasn't even mine to begin with) in two weeks to move into my boyfriend's one bedroom apartment.

R and K have been together since high school. I still remember the day, when we were driving around and stopped by Wendy's for food, that she excitedly told me that they'd gotten together. She had the biggest crush on him for a long time, but had dated his best friend. Finally enough time had passed that they could start dating, and they've been together, on and off a bit, ever since. She informed me that since I'd last seen R last summer, he had gained 45 pounds and a B cup, making him just about 250 now. "Be careful he doesn't get breast cancer!" my mom piped up.

As I gave K a brief overview of equity derivatives trading (she asked what S did for his job), I asked, "Hey, where is R by the way?" "Planting corn with his buddies," she answers. "Our dryer is broken, I've been driving this car without a sideview mirror for months, and he's out farming instead of fixing stuff at home." Sigh.

I don't think our worlds could be more different, but we ourselves are not so different from each other. Makes you think about how many other best friends you could have in some remote part of the world where life is 100% different from what you're used to. K will never read this-- or at least not until she befriends the technology of today, but no matter where we are or what we're doing, I think we'll always be best friends.