Home again, home again, jiggedy-jig

As of 2:45 PM today, 11 January 2009, I will have officially been back home in Wisconsin for one month after completing five years, ten months and four days of international service. Despite the excitement of the Bangkok protests, I arrived in plenty of time to celebrate Christmas and see in the New Year with family back home. It was also my first feel of snow after nearly seven long years. And when you consider that the snow years before that were pretty poor ones, it was really my first snowy year in over ten years.

It came as a bit of an anticipated shock - especially as I landed in time for a week of miserably cold temperatures and windchills. The big snows had managed to go to the south of us (my aunt and uncle, school teacher and administrator in the Fox Valley area, were none too pleased), but we had plenty of cold to remind me of what winter is really like. The sunny days, even if they were cold, did actually help keep me in the spirit of things even as the Christmas commercial season became a bit overwhelming.

And now the beginning of a new year has come and gone. For the moment, this is much more of an ending and a final wrap-up of my past six years than a new step forward. I'm taking time at home to collect myself and reaclimate to this now-strange world of cold, whiteness and complex kitchen appliances. 2009 will prove to be a very different year one way or another, and I look forward to see how it might surprise me!

I wish all of you a happy and healthy 2009. The whole world is experiencing many changes, so I wish for you all the strength and endurance to ride the waves and anticipate a time in which this will be an exciting story to tell. Indeed, who would have guessed six years ago that I would have told the stories that I have?

Christmas back on the (other?) side of the world

So I have successfully survived my first Christmas at home in too many (well, according to my family) years. It started out looking like what I imagine many Christmases in the US and Canada - and possibly the U.K., but probably not Australia or N.Z. - looked like: We skirted the cars in the ditch and arrived safely and, despite the family's best efforts, we survived it. But one annual tradition I'd forgotten about was the magnetic noel. My grandmother has magnetic letters spelling "N - O - E - L" on her refrigerator. My sister, by tradition, changes it to spell "L E O N" as soon as she walks in the door at Christmas. Grandma, after some minutes, hours or days, notices this, grumbles and shifts letters back to her preferred order. My sister usually changes it again immediately, and so the battle rages. This year, for the first time, Grandma was left to wage battle as more than just Leon invaded her house: And once I saw the LONE Pine had made an appearance, I decided it was time to make my Christmas wish known: But somebody else wanted Who was quickly labeled for thinking he could get one in this economy. By then somebody had decided we were all just Yes, in these tough economic times, you'd better hope you can say, Merry Christmas, from our family to yours.

Suvarnabhumi Refugee Update

Refugee status, day 10: travel documents are prepared and am awaiting flight.

After nearly two weeks of intense uncertainty and political volleyball, the constitutional courts played their hand and gave the Thai protesters a minimal win while simultaneously slapping them on the wrist for the inconvenience they've caused the world. I've really been amused far more than annoyed by the whole course of events - it has been a fascinating look into the Thai culture. I do fairly believe that the Thai people are about the only ones that would greet you with a smile, apologize for having to shoot you, shoot you, then kowtow to you and apologize again for having to shoot you. Truly, the land of smiles.

The latest news is that the protesters have abandoned the airport, apparently leaving remarkably little damage behind them as they were able to bring the airport online almost immediately. They had been predicting a minimum of 7 days to do security checks and reboot the IT systems, so it must be a statement of some degree of how careful the protesters were not to leave a lasting inconvenience to the travelers and those that service them. They made their point, and got out.

I have a new ticket for this week Thursday - a full 15 days after I was first scheduled to leave. Wish me luck!