A new day...

I had forgotten how pretty sunrises and sunsets are. I'm currently watching the sunrise here on Whidbey Island in Washington state and it's just gorgeous. This whole area is. I've missed scenery like this. It's been a while since I've spent time by the ocean and amongst mountains so it's nice to see again. I also love that it's fall here so all the leaves are turning these fantastic colors and just littering the ground. Actually, this is the first real fall I've witnessed... How sad is that? We just don't have them like this in Florida and I can't say that Shanghai's fall is really all that nice. I realized the other day that this is the first fall that I've traveled. I've traveled in winter spring and summer but never fall. It's a shame actually because fall is a great time to travel (from what I've heard!).

I'm officially back in the U.S. and it still hasn't sunk in that I'm not going back to China. I'm a lot sadder about it than I thought that I would be, and surprisingly still freaking out! I've never done anything like this before. Moving to China was less of a big deal than moving to a place I would never have picked for myself for someone else's reasons to be with that person... Something I definitely never thought I would find myself doing. It's quite terrifying actually. My biggest fear is that I'll hate living in Atlanta. This scares me because if I hate living in Atlanta but things are going wonderfully with Andrew... this will be a huge problem. I'm trying not to think about it too much - but I thought a lot about it when everyone kept asking me "Why are you leaving China?" and I didn't have what I thought was a good enough reason. (It says something about my character that the answer "love" never even occurred to me until Faye said it - love never seemed like a good enough reason to turn my life upside down but things change I guess.)

My trip home wasn't terribly eventful except for one embarrassing misunderstanding. When I booked my tickets they said that I would be leaving Hong Kong at 00:55 and arriving in Vancouver at 05:15 - both on November 6th. I distinctly remember doing the math in my head and working out that according to this my flight was like 23 hours - but I decided to disregard this because I figured I was just messing something up. Turns out - I was right. The time was completely wrong and as a result I landed in Vancouver about 10 hours early. This was no big deal really except I had to stay the night in Vancouver which I wasn't planning on doing. In the end it was probably better for me because the next day taking the 2 shuttles to get from Vancouver to Seattle and from Seattle to the island... I don't think I would have been able to stand up had I done it all straight. I already arrived pretty wiped out. Regardless I was totally pissed when I got on the plane and it said we would be arriving at 8 p.m. I just wish I would have known so that I could have found a hotel on my own (probably for cheaper!) before I left. Eh well, it worked out OK.

It's gorgeous here with quaint little towns and amazing used bookstores! What I wouldn't give for an empty suitcase... Not like I don't already have enough books - it's an addiction really. Bailey went nuts when she saw me and she didn't attack my mom ( who I met up with in Seattle) which was a good start. So far everything is going smoothly - except for the rain! - and I'm having a great time! Zeb's just absolutely adorable and the fam is all good and happy. All in all it's been great so far and I'm excited for people to start waking up so I can go do stuff today! It's actually not raining so I'm excited to wander around a bit more. I'm still really jetlagged. I went to bed at around 11 but woke up at 3:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. While I was able to get pretty far in Mario on my DS, I didn't get a lot of sleep.

Mom and I are here for a day more or maybe two, then we're going to Seattle to see the city a bit. Neither of us have ever been so we're excited to wander around and see what all the hype is about. Then on the 12th I fly home! I'm really excited to see my friends from home again and to see my cat and my little brother... It will be weird staying at my house with no one else there, but I'll get over it!

I'll try and update again soon and post some pics of my time here.