The return

Why aren't I still here?

It’s one thing to go away on a trip. It’s another thing to come back. What happens when the dream trip is over? At first it’s okay. For one thing, you’re so exhausted you don’t care where you are. And then you get to phone all your friends and everyone says, “How was France? I want to hear all about it!” Trust me, they don’t really. They only want to hear that you had fun, you’re alive and that you didn’t get pickpocketed .. unless you had an affair. Everyone wants to hear about that. Oh, wait. Did I say that out loud? Hey, I’m speaking abstractly here. This is theoretical, folks.

For a few days when you come back from a trip you are motivated by the excitement of your  return. It’s like that new fresh feeling you get in fall of hope-filled beginnings. For a few hours or days you see your city in a new light and you have a determination to get organized, to start anew. And then … and then …. blah. Then you have credit card bills to look forward to, and work that has piled up that you don’t want to do like your quarterly GST, and a dusty floor that needs cleaning and laundry and .. shut up already. I’m making myself feel even worse.

And why am I not still here?

So, having just come back from my personal dream trip in Paris and the South of France, here are my tips to adjusting:

1) Don’t stress out if you don’t seem to be able to get much accomplished. Travel is tiring – especially if it’s a trip abroad – and it takes awhile to recoup. Unless you are my boyfriend Mark who seems strangely refreshed.

2) Don’t feel bad because your travel companions recover faster than you. It’s just a sucky quirk of fate.

3) Check out something new. Nothing gets a person excited about being back in his/her home territory than tramping new ground. For me it’s going to be a trip to the Iyashi Bedrock Spa next week, the only Japanese Ganbanyoku (rock bathing) spa in North America. Apparently it uses black silica stones imported from Japan and I’ve had it on my radar for quite some time.  Expect a report soon.

4) Learn something new. Cruise the Net or read your local paper to find a talk or a workshop that will keep you motivated and interested in life. Tonight, for example, I’m going to a talk on blogging hosted by my local TMAC (Travel Media Association of Canada). Hopefully it will make this blog more readable (hey, don’t agree with me).

5) Meet someone new. No, I’m not saying go walk down the street and try to pick someone up (you should have done that in Paris because then your friends would want to hear about your trip). What I’m really saying is that as luck would have it, next week I’m going to have coffee with one of my fav bloggers who happens to be in town, Nomadic Chick. Yay!

6) It’s not all about doing something new. The best, the very best, thing about coming back to town is meeting up with old friends and having a beer (and don’t cry because it’s not champagne at the Hotel Crillon in Paris) and catching up on their lives, their latest trips and their most scandalous gossip (especially if they had an affair).

And especially ... why am I not here?