excerpts from an email to kristi -

its funny, culture shock is, cause you think about it before you return home. you think, yeah, there will be big cars, tons of cash/money, my family, my normal haunts, everything that was and you also think that leaving the place you were at will be easy, there wont be any trouble, that the relationships you built and the people that you love will just not be there like they were before but when that plane comes down to land in the states everything you thought goes out the window.

even now, its been two months, writing this my eyes are welling with tears. i cant comprehend where this emotion came from or what happened. but i love and cherish it dearly. being home feels like your not real, nothing here has the permanence that india had for me, life here is so fucking imaginary that i just dont know what to do sometimes.

everyone needs to leave their comfort zones, whether its through studying abroad or by changing their reality, moving to a different neighborhood, changing friends, harder job, whatever.

kristi, dont let the daily routine, the mundane, the repeated dull & drain you. dont let this world leech the beauty of china from your memory, dont let what 'just is' here overpower what you want, your dreams, or your desires.

ive got to get back to work, thanks for asking me about india. if the god(s) above smile on us we can share stories in nyc this august.

huge huge huge huge hugs!!!! hugs so big they fill the sky, cover the sun, and create their own light in the space shared by two people.

demetrius