Turn, turn, turn...

My body is angry. At least this is a possibility, according to my smart, science teacher friend Katie. My body, which has grown up in the midwest and has experienced 23 autumns to date, is starting to wonder where the heck the 24th fall is.

I've been sick for two days this week, just generally achy and shivery and crappy. Apparently my blood's used to thickening up this time of year and now it's not needing to because the weather in Indonesia NEVER CHANGES. Normal illness for expat teachers, I guess, getting sick around seasonal change times even though there really isn't a seasonal change here except rainy and not. This makes sense, I guess, though I'm not a science person. For all I know, Katie was telling me that so I didn't convince myself I had malaria or dengue fever or some other horrible disease. I guess it's also normal to experience a hypochondriac phase when going through culture shock. There comes a period, usually after the initial "I hate this place! No, wait, I love this place! No..." up and down stuff wanes for a while, when you get paranoid that you're getting all the diseases your particular new geographical region is known for. It's interesting how accurate the phases of culture shock that the Culture Shock! Indonesia book listed are. Apathy and "I just wanna leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeave because it's so dumb here!" phase are soon to follow.

So anyway, those of you who are starting to pull out your sweatshirts and jackets-do me a favor. Nex time you're outside and it's chilly and fall-like and gorgeous, stop and take a deep breath for me. Then go crunch some dead leaves on the sidewalk for Travis-that's always been his favorite part of fall and he won't get that this year. He always runs around like a kid, going out of his way to stomp on leaves and make crunchy noises. I brought one sweatshirt with me, a brand new Concordia hoodie I bought at a big sale a few weeks before we left. It's sitting on a bottom shelf in my closet, nicely folded with the tags still on, waiting to be carried on to a plane mid-December so that when I land in Omaha Dec. 19 I won't freeze. In less than two months, I will be just waking up next to a fuzzy little dachshund. I absolutely CANNOT wait!

At the same time, a subtle shift has taken place here. All of a sudden, without realizing it, I seem to have accepted that Indonesia is my home for now and for the first time since I got here, I'm okay with it. I know it'll go up and down, my homesickness and my feelings about this place. But Seward had its ups and downs. Every place does. I've finally made some peace with my temporary home, though, making it just a teensy bit easier.