Farewell, Sri Lanka

The Tree Trimming party on Wednesday was a success! Due primarily, of course, to our awesome homemade cherry pie. In addition to that, it was nice to get to meet some of Dineli and Nigel's friends and get even more of a sense of their life here.

Other than my last day in Thailand when I saw some outdoor Christmas decorations at a shopping center (with, inexplicably, two 20-feet tall bunny rabbit statues among them), I hadn't seen anything of Christmas before getting to Sri Lanka. And I have to say that when you see Christmas decorations while walking around in 85-degree weather, it just doesn't evoke the same feeling. Having always spent Christmas in a cold climate, it's been interesting to realize how totally intertwined those two things are for me: it just doesn't SEEM like Christmas to me when it's warm. So, hearing Christmas music and seeing all of the decorations at the party was the first time it started to sink in at all that it's actually the holiday season. Even so, it still doesn't seem real somehow and I have this feeling that I'm going to get home and be SHOCKED that it's Christmas. It's hard to explain but it's pretty surreal.

Thursday may have been the ultimate chill day, recouping from the party the night before. Dineli, Nigel and I did manage to make it out to dinner at a cool German pub in the evening, but that was the extent of our excursions for the day. Here dinner is usually eaten between 9 and 10 which, as a night person, I totally dig. I'll definitely miss that when I get home. I will also miss really good beer. I have never really liked beer before this trip. I'm now realizing that was because I was never trying good beers. Between Belgium (famous for their beer prowess), India, Thailand and now Sri Lanka, I have had some really good ones and am shocked to now say that I count myself among the ranks of beer drinkers. I will have to make it a mission to seek out some good ones when I get back to the States. So I guess travel DOES broaden one's horizons!

And so I arrive at the end of my time in Sri Lanka... finally. Four days turned into ten pretty quickly and I'm pretty sure that Dineli and Nigel were starting to wonder if it would ever end! But it's now time to move on, yet again. I'm at the point now where every day I extend in one place takes time off of another and, as my time is officially running out (yikes!), I have a lot to cram in to my final three weeks. Being here has been wonderful. I fell in love with her kids (the baby even learned to say "Auntie" while I was here!) and I got to see life in Sri Lanka. But more than anything it was wonderful because I got to reconnect with an old friend and to be a part of her life here for a short time. She and her husband were beyond generous in allowing me to crash at their place for so long and also in giving so much of their time and resources to treat me like an honored guest.

They are planning a trip back to Toronto and possibly Lancaster in the spring so I shall see them again in the near future. But, for now, off to Singapore.... !