guess what!

here i am. here i am listening to my favorite billie holiday CD again, but this time the songs are moving through a nice speaker system, filling up this LA appartment full of bright LA sunlight streaming through the windows. opening up the sliding door does not give me the warm tropical breeze my body and mind are so accustomed to, but a frigid early april feel that gives me chills. my jeans are something i can wear, indeed necessary in some ways, and i know when i go out that i'll be wanting a warm jacket, and a scarf, and maybe a hat, and some gloves. and some sunglasses too. we went through customs last night and saw the 'welcome to the united states of america' signs, and a woman asked me if i was a citizen of the US and i paused not sure what to say. of course the answer came eventually but i'm so used to be a foreigner in a country, coupled with months of conversations about the state of the US and my own ideas of what it means to be a citizen of this country changing, it took me a second to perk up to the correct response. Hold hold, here here! let me bring you up to speed first before i get to into what it is like to be here now! we left bali at 4 in the afternoon. we had breakfast at kafe that morning with chloe, to be met later by katie and jessa. it was a fitting last meal, seeing people that were so familiar to us, yet we'd only known for 2 weeks. i acknowledged chloe for bringing us to bali, and what a difference that made for me! in the true style of our trip being so open to whatever possibilities we felt drawn to, it was fitting to be hugging goodbye the person who opened up the last 5 weeks of our trip to be what it was. we went to bali buddha one last time, sped down the road to our house and found that our airport driver, nyoman was already waiting for us. we went to the ninth house, and packed up all of our things last minute style and said a big goodbye to made (pronounced mah-day), and he told us 'the ninth house loves you two, you are always welcome here'. kamang and nyoman grabbed our packs and carried them back away from the ninth house and down the path. one last walk through the rice paddies, one last salumet siang! good afternoon! to all of the painters doing their thing on the path. we put our things in the van and said goodbye to kamang, almost crying at leaving him and made and our home. we pulled away and sped down the road towards the airport. a typical drive of dodging dogs laying all over the road, other scooters that just veer to the side of the road in the wake of bigger vehicles. sand piles that are just dumped in the street, rice drying in the sun, familes talking in the road, woman on the way to ceremony--there are no sidewalks, everyone just drives around it all. the whole way there was basically new territory as we never really explored the south of the island. it made me really appreciate where i was living even more! we got to the airport, checked in, surreal surreal, ...we had been given an offering by made and after buying a few last minute treats we went looking for a temple in the airport. i was surprised to see they didn't have one, but all of the stores had incense burning and offerings just outside their spaces. two women were encouraging us to go and have a drink in their lounge, and declining, we asked if we could leave our offering with theirs. visibly touched and delighted, they of course said yes and we set ours down next to theirs--it was a perfect moment. and when we were finally boarding the plane, we were greeted going down the tunnel to the plane with a group of balinese people singing and playing instruments and wishing everyone a good flight. we started crying at this point, tears of gratitude at how amazing and open and generous these balinese people are with their land and hearts. we flew to hong kong. sitting next to a very chatty and great woman from northern norway. i got kind of tipsy on 3 free beers! coming up to the city near 9 pm, it was dark, and from the southeast we arrived over the sea..mysterious lanters floating in the water-- fishing boats perhaps? and came upon the lights of hong kong. the clouds were puffy and fluffy and the city shone through them, black and white..towers reaching up to the sky, the massiveness of the place stretching and groping on and on. a nasty head wind on the landing made the plane jump and bounce not just up and down but side to side which was slightly terrifying. a few uneventful hours there and we're off on our main flight--a whopping thirteen hours flying through the sky --almost 8000 miles coming all the way across the biggest ocean on earth. the plane was a double decker and equipped with some fancy seats that had computers on them including 150 CD's, 50 movies, tv shows, documentaries, 100 games, language programs etc.. the time...passed. slowly at times, 9 hours, 7 hours, 5 hours..it seemed like forever and then it was just over. after the hour long customs entry and we grabbed our packs, walked outside and met our good friend rocket! the first time we have seen someone that we knew from home since jeremy in bangkok, 6 weeks ago. we sped through the streets of la, hopping on I-405, whoa! i called my brother and sister and heard their lovely voices for the first time in three months. we talked to our parents soon after and checked in with everyone..i dodged questions about the future..laughing them off as something that isn't right now and that i won't think about until later (the scarlett o'hara syndrome as my mom calls it). i stood at the window and looked out at the big lights of this sprawling mass of city, and dead pan in front of me loomed a giant i-pod billboard, yellow in the background with a dancing woman silhouette. that is when i knew i was back. i took some herbal sleeping pills last night and only woke up once, at 2:30 am, momentarily horrified that i wouldn't be able to fall back asleep, and through exhaustion i managed to until 9:00 this morning. 9:00am LA time equals 12 midnight bali time. i feel good now! i've been plotting and scheming a lot about how to beat this jetlag thing, and i think i might have conquered it! only time will be the test of that though. for anyone wondering..we left at 4 pm from bali, got to hong kong at 9 pm, left at midnight, and then arrived in LA 3 hours before we left at 9:15 pm. it was completely dark in hong kong, then at some point was light, and then just before arriving to LA the sun was setting again. it is very trippy going from dark to light and through a whole sun cycle in just 12 1/2 hours. we are adjusting to this world by landing in the heart of american pop culture for four lovely days. we will be in seattle on sunday and then down to portland. three days there for melissa and a week for me and then up to bellingham. we will still be blogging, so please check back often to see how re-entry is, reverse culture shock, settling back into a wonder-full, vibrant, alive experience of being here will be. we are full of inspiration and perspecive and excitement right now, and we can't wait to see everyone.

please write to us if you feel inspired to do so, especially for all of those people who have come across our blog that we don't know, we'd love to see who is reading this..we've had over 2000 hits on the site.

much love to everyone, and thank you soo so much for reading and supporting us on this journey!

carson (and melissa)