Well, it was very ambitious for me to leap right into a regular schedule in this time zone. It has felt like a slap-happy all-nighter today, which started with a good sugar high and now I’m dragging dumbbells with my eyelids. I’m doing a tremendous brain dump of my experiences over the past month trekking in Nepal while it’s fresh in my memory. I’m still caught between the overload of the experience and the adjustment back to American life. It still feel like there’s a steep hill for me to climb and that I’d like to crawl into my tent soon, only after a cup of hot lemon first. But I’ve already lived the dream of waking up in a warm bed, stepping onto a carpeted floor and walking nearby to the indoor bathroom to take a shower. It’s still very strange seeing traffic lights, and seeing cars stopping at traffic lights and staying neatly within their lanes. Which part of that is the dream? This is a serious concern because I’m not sure my mind is fully established in reality yet.

I’ve enjoyed reading through other blogs about Nepal today. I’ll have to link to some of them tomorrow because there are a lot of other interesting perspectives. I’m glad to see that there are so many people who have enjoyed their time there so much and it looks like the all the agony is worth it for just about everyone who tries it. I’m also pretty lucky because this trip just availed itself to me. It was never my life’s ambition to go trekking, it came to me and offered the opportunity. I read about quite a few other people who dreamed about it for years and went through quite a bit of sacrifice and preparation to make it happen. Of course there are also some out there who could set out on a whim. I really appreciate Richard and SherpaTrek.com for making this possible for me and for being so generous with the enabling resources. I still can’t believe I went, and many times out on the steep up/down/up trails I wondered what I was doing there. Nevertheless, I’m confident I’ll look back on the experience and see the ways I’ve grown and become more thankful for my great fortune – but only after I shake off this jetlag.