Greetings from Camp Granada*

How curious that a trip to another country could trigger bouts of homelessness for the States…

Although, that could be circumstantial, and it wasn’t just any country – it was another English speaking country!

Not to mention –
-the previously mentioned Guinness (which just may have been distracting me from said homesickness)
-that I’ve been reading (and sympathizing with) Under the Tuscan Sun, by a woman who also makes her home in San Francisco
-same goes for “Mother Tongue” by Bill Bryson. I mean really! Where do we get off, taking a word like ‘colonel’ and pronouncing it the French way, and but spelling it like the Italians??
-and most of all! We returned home from Ireland, and had ONE piece of mail, and do you know what it was??? Holy cow (and I saw a lot of those) it was from my BROTHER – you know, the one I said most of you didn’t know I had – and he had sent me a BIRTHDAY card! (Pay no mind to the great passage of time since my actual birthday; my brother is deeply ensconced in bringing Japanese Mah Jong to the world at large – important stuff!)

OTOH* (as we hectic ones are wont to say), there was a good bit I missed about Italy during 9 days in Ireland…
-why is it only the Italians that have figured out how to make good (or even drinkable) coffee?
- writing, at home, with the windows open – perfectly warm air and ripples of conversation below
-using “hello beautiful!”(ciao bella!) as a common greeting
-cute summery clothes
-gelato and pasta – nuff said

and OTOOH**, I had a cruel awakening upon touchdown in Milan – maybe not an awakening so much as an onslaught – we come out of the double doors at the airport and I’m struck with a powerful wave of thick, humid air--even though it’s 9:00 at night! Ugh. I turn to Trevor, who liked Ireland for the rain, pouting, and somewhere between whispering and whining, I say, “I missss Ireland…”

I guess, at the end of the day, homesickness (at least mine) is all relative.

*if on this reference you draw a blank, check out the wikipedia entry.
**on the other hand
***on the other other hand (didn’t see that one coming, didja?)