I’m So Looking Forward To…

Dearest Rachel –

Despite all the things that I’ve been able to enjoy here on the ship for the last three months, there is a lot that I’m looking forward to getting back to. And since my time here is coming to a close, I thought that, rather than bemoaning that fact, I ought to list off a few things that I’m looking forward to getting back to, as a complementary piece to the things that I’m not going to miss from this place.

Some things are probably pretty obvious; while it feels like I could come and go as I please around here, that’s not entirely true. After all, there’s only so far you can go before you literally run out of ship. There are times when I worry just ever so slightly that I might forget how to drive a car. So you probably can guess that I’m looking forward to getting behind the wheel very shortly. Not immediately, mind you – when I step off the plane after flying in from DXB, I’m going to be far too groggy to drive, I shouldn’t wonder. But I’ve been eyeing this and that vehicle as I wander about one port and another. I’ve even heard stories about some that I didn’t get the chance to ride (like the tuktuks of Sri Lanka and India), and try to imagine what they might be like to drive back home. It’s not going to happen, of course – I’m stuck with the car I already own, for now (although I have occasionally gone over to the Twike website to check my status) – but the chance to get behind a wheel of any sort is something to look forward to.

But it’s not just the vehicle, and the chance to control it, that I’m looking forward to – there are also all the places I can take it to; places that I would have wanted to direct such a vehicle in some of the ports we were in (well, think about it; if Chicago is an analogue for any of the more major cities we visited, what might their suburbs be like? Would I recognize them as being like home, in spirit, if not necessarily in appearance?). I haven’t really been able to control my own direction for all this time. Oh, I can go off on my own for an hour or two at a time, but I’m limited to how far I can walk, and in what direction; and I still have to eventually figure out how to make my way back by a certain time, lest I get left behind. As such, I’m not always in a place when it’s running at peak capacity – and if I am, I still have those time constraints (as well as other things) to consider. Back home, I may not be hitting the nightlife districts, but in theory, I could.

And with that being said, I think it’s high time that I consider being a bit of a tourist in my own hometown. To “pretend [I’m] a foreigner and drink the city in,” as the song lyric goes. Maybe if I could convince somebody to play tourist with me, it could be that much more remarkable. Either way, it’s something I need to get back to, for my own sake.

Then again, is it even necessary to do that? I can easily say that I’m just as much in anticipation of returning to my own bedroom, with my rocking chair and television, as I might be for any chance of knocking about my home city. More so, in fact, because they are, quite literally, the “comforts of home,” which I’ve been away from for the longest time.

And for all the culinary delights I’ve enjoyed over the past three months, I could really go for an actual, decent pizza. Tavern style or deep dish, it doesn’t really matter – heck, I’ll get to have both soon enough, I should hope. And since, as I’ve wandered throughout Asia and realized how many of these things are available to me right back at home, I may just have to do a little bit of a tour of those very places, in order to refresh my memory at some point – not just yet, of course, as I’ve had plenty of it over the past couple of months. Still, for now, I’d probably settle for a proper smoothie, first thing once I get home. As I said, there are a few things that they just can’t seem to get right here.

Like cranberry juice. You actually have to ask for it in the Windjammer, as it’s not just sitting around in trays of glasses like orange juice or lemonade, but they will bring it to you if you request it (and since the waiters come up to you on the regular – “How is everything? Can I get you something else?” – that’s not all that difficult). The weird thing is, it usually arrives with an absurd amount of ice in it. Now normally, I like my drinks cold, but I also have to acknowledge I don’t care for them to be watered down. No worries, though – when you ask for it in the dining room, it’s brought out with no ice (and it’s reasonably chilled). At which point, you discover why they put so much ice into it; it tastes like it’s been reconstituted from syrup. Which is okay – hey, I accept that even the name brands back home are mostly made from concentrate – but they kind of skimp on the water, and lean into the syrup. You’d think the extra flavor would be welcome, but it isn’t. I had to cut it with water (and ice) by half to make it palatable. I’m looking forward to getting back to my Ocean Spray.

Cranberries aren’t the only ones I’m anticipating a return to, either. Despite not being all that keen on having to go back to paying for everything as I go again (and I realize that I have paid for what I’ve been consuming; it’s just been all up front, so it didn’t feel like I was spending money as I did so), I’m ready to get back to dropping in on the local Aldi or wherever every couple of days or so, and getting myself a container of berries. Blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, you name it. I get that they don’t keep well, and so they’re not particularly feasible to have just for snacking on aboard a ship (although they clearly have a supply for various pastries and other desserts), but I’ve really started to miss them over all this time. I’m definitely grabbing some of these once I get home.

One of the weirdest things I’ve realized I’ve missed is the ability to do my own laundry. Sure, it’s nice being able to bag it up and hand it off to I Komang or Marlon, but I suspect that whatever the crew uses in their machines is a little hard, to say the least, on T-shirt designs. Additionally, they clearly don’t use fabric softeners of any sort, which is why their towels aren’t particularly fluffy and comfy. I never thought that comfy towels were going to be a thing I missed about a long trip like this, but here we are.

And then, there’s the comfiness of human contact. Yes, I’ve gotten quite accustomed to certain people here, especially around the dining room table, but it still feels rather like visiting your folks, honey. Some of them have the outspoken opinionatedness that comes with a certain age (although, to be fair, almost all of them are still friendly to a fault. Hey, we’re all on vacation – what’s not to be happy about?); with others, I’ve discovered I have to tread carefully around certain topics lest I find myself in an argument I didn’t ask for. You know what I’m talking about, honey. In any event, being back among family and friends allows me to set that level of caution aside, and just be comfortable once again. Granted, I’m not sure I want to spend too much of the next couple of months telling one story or another about my travels – it’s part of why I tried to record as much of it in real time as I did, so I wouldn’t have to later – but that’s a small inconvenience relative to having to be surrounded by hundreds of still-strange faces. Meanwhile, I’d like to hope there are some of them looking forward to seeing me back; I’ll bet Daniel is ready to relinquish the reigns on the house, for instance. It gives a whole new aspect to ‘being relieved,’ after all

With that being said, there will be a few things that will need to be sorted out once I’m home, too – so the sooner I’m there, the sooner we can get on with that, too, I guess. I’m not entirely sure what that might entail – I don’t know the future, after all – but if you could keep an eye on me, honey, and wish me luck, I’d appreciate it. After all, I’m going to need it.