Florida...

See you in 40 days.

(but who's counting?)

I decided to come home. Actually, my guts decided for me. I called Dad and told him that I was not coming home, I was going to Thailand to teach poor children and travel to new countries and not waste my traveling years and I felt guilty taking a huge hand-out from my parents and blah blah blah.

Well as soon as we hung up I new I made the wrong decision. I felt that gut feeling of, "whooops, you just chose the wrong door."

So, I am coming home. January 13-27 (wednesday to wednesday). It will be a total of 12 days at home, 2 days flying, which means absolutely no time to recover from jet lag at all. (It will have to be a mental battle, for sure). I will be in New Port Richey and I won't have a car, but I will try to go to St. Augustine for one of the weekends.

Because I am coming home at the mid-way point this year, I am unsure if I will come home this summer. I am still debating whether to keep this going or move back into the flailing American economy with no assets and a general masters degree, but no matter the final decision is come June, (my contract ends June 30th), I want to spend next summer traveling.

But for now, I need a break. Life in China is like constantly holding your breath, and I need to exhale. I was trying to think about what I would regret most. Would I regret going home and not using the time to explore this corner of the world? Or would I regret going traveling and not spending time with my family. I couldn't figure it out.

So in the end I chose family over Thai babies. New Port Richey over Mongolia.

Actually, I will still get to travel to Malaysia and Thailand for a week thanks to cheap flight deals and an extra week before I spend Chinese New Year with a Chinese friend, so the wanderlust in me will still be satisfied. Just on a lesser scale than originally planned.

Someone else will teach the children. For now, I need my country, my family, and my home. There's no price tag on that.

see you soon!

cheers. xo.