I don’t really experience homesickness, because I always feel pretty excited about what’s coming up, about the future, about where I’m going next.
So this is the 5 things I’m looking forward to at this moment, knowing I’m returning to Colorado tomorrow.
This is being written from a hotel outside of San Jose, Costa Rica called the Adventure Inn.
#1. Water
-Hot Water (lots of nice, hot water in the shower)
-Tap water. At least in Colorado, drinking filtered tap water is safe, cool, and nice. Although we’ve drank tap water in Costa Rica and Panama, it’s nice to know that the water in the states is safe, whereas in Central America, I’m never 100% certain.

#2. Family
Other than the time I spent living in Germany in 2001, this is the longest I’ve ever gone not seeing my parents or my sister. My brothers I’ve not seen for longer periods of time, as they went away to college and moved different places. However, everyone on my side of the family will be together for Christmas, which will be the first time that’s happened in a few years, so that’s very exciting.

#3. Christmas
Snow: I suppose that I could get used to warm, sunny Christmases if necessary, but this is the first time in my life I’ve not seen snow in the months leading up to Christmas. I’m looking forward to making snowpeople (though my sister Deanna (my usual co-conspirator in the process of making snowpeople) won’t be able to help me make them since she broke her arm). I’m also looking forward to throwing snowballs and drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows – not just because it tastes good, but because it’s nice (and a little necessary) in order to warm up.

Decorations: My mom and dad and family always put up lots of Christmas decorations. I’m looking forward to the Gemuetlichkeit of being at home.

Food: Christmastime foods are delicious in the United States.

Woodstove: My parents designed and built a passive solar home. This is the home I grew up in. In the winter, the house stays warm in the evenings with heat from a woodstove which has a glass front. I love sitting in front of the woodstove and watching the logs slowly give up their structure and become ash in the process of giving off heat. There’s a deepness that I feel, like I’m connecting to something very ancient, when sitting and watching a fire. Watching that fire in the woodstove feels like re-connection with something much older than me.

#4. Quiet time and places
Though we have had places and moments of quiet in the past 2 ½ months, mostly we’ve been experiencing loud cities, hotel life, and lots of moving around. Carrie and I tend to be relatively quiet people, so we’re more sensitive to atmospheric noise than the average person. Also, I don’t know if it’s just in November/December, but Central America is REALLY loud. People talk louder, there are parades and fireworks and loudspeakers attached to cars and trucks, dogs, chickens, pigs, cows, etc. I’m looking forward to being in a few places where I know for sure I will find quiet. I’m looking forward to making time to just enjoy the quietness for an hour or two.

#5. Healing
Bug bites take longer to heal in the tropics. This is probably due to humidity, heat, and ferocity of the bugs and their bites. Colorado’s colder and drier winter weather should give our bites a chance to heal before we head back to housesit in Panama and head to South America in 2010.