The end is in sight

January 20, 2017

It is Friday and Ron has an all day class to teach today. Both of us are bored as our time to leave nears. I have grown impatient. Yesterday, I went to a restaurant that has the best espresso in town. When the waiter approached with the menu I said I only wanted an Americano. He shook his head and said ‘no’. I started to explain what an Americano was and he flipped open the menu and point to espresso and cappuccino and said ‘that is all’. I again tried to explain what an Americano was and he again interrupted me and again pointed to his menu items. I stood up quite frustrated and as I walked away I said ‘I have had Americano here three times before’. I grumbled away. I went to the gift shop in the hotel where the outdoor restaurant is located and browsed. I have shopped here many times because they have exquisite crafts. Nothing appealed to me so I came home.

My neighbor to the left burns incense in the yard in the morning and my neighbor to the right burns incense in the yard  in the evening. I find incense overpowering but just now have been aware of it. Another sign that it is time for me to leave. Each time we leave a foreign country where we have resided we start finding fault and become more cynical. I think it is some form of a psychological device for separation. I am way homesick for Portland and our life there. I have grown tired of ’making do’ here. I long for a good cup of coffee, a fine meal, seeing friends and family, seeing good movies. You get the picture.

Tomorrow we will start packing for departure. Ron is a master at packing so my job is to bring items to the suitcase and let him do the packing. We leave next week on Friday, Jan 27^th for Nepal for six days. Ron works Mon-Wed. next week. Thursday is a holiday. By Thursday I plan to distribute all the household items to Kamla, Rahul and Narian. I will keep one set of towels and sheets and floor/bath mats. We return from Nepal on Wednesday, Feb 1. We will go out for dinner and in the morning eat cereal. I will have Narian wash the sheets, etc on the 2^nd and once they are dry in the afternoon, I will give Kamla the sheets and we will leave to check into the Hyatt for our last night in Ahmedabad. Hopefully we will get a massage there before dinner at the hotel. We will get up around 4:00 to catch our flight to Sri Lanka.

For the next four nights I won’t be cooking. Tonight we have been invited to Sapna and Vishal’s for dinner. Sapna is the Badlani’s daughter and the spitting image of her mother. Last week Kamla and I went to their home for afternoon tea. They are in a newer, larger society and have a beautiful modern home.

Saturday night we are taking some neighbor’s out for dinner, Sunday night we are going to Kamaldeep’s home for dinner. She is my friend who is the textile designer. Monday night we are having dinner at the Badlani’s. So I have been working to empty the freezer and pantry to use up what is here. I have been rather successful and it is looking kind of empty in the cupboard. Narian loves to cook for I will give him our Indian spices and a couple of items in the pantry that I won’t use before I leave. I anticipate that packing up and vacating will be fairly easily and quick. Kamla bought about 90% of our household items. I few things like drinking glasses, a glass pitcher and two glass water bottles, etc will go to the Association for the Blind that has a house wares store that raises money for school programs. I will also take them any clothes I don’t take with me. I have limited need for kurtas and harem pants back home.

The hard part is waiting until time to go. In the past, we had to pack up the house of items we were bringing back. In Sri Lanka we had a complete household full of furniture, dishes, linens, cookware, etc. to ship to Thailand to furnish our house there. In Rep of Georgia we had some items to ship home so leaving was different and more time consuming. We took all of the items we had bought here home in November to lighten our load now. We have bought very little since then.

January 25, 2017

Today our realtor and landlord’s father in law are coming to make final arrangements, inspect the house and return our deposit. Ron and I have been packing while waiting. Afterwards, Ron goes to work and I will meet him at lunch.  We will dine with his co-workers.  It is Ron’s last day at work.

 Tonight we will have a simple supper and I can pretty much pack up the kitchen. Tomorrow we will have cereal for breakfast. We will either have a salad for lunch or go out for lunch and dinner so make life less stressful. I am cleaning out the refrigerator/freezer and the pantry. It feels good to be wrapping things up. If we make the progress we are planning on today and tomorrow, when we return on the 1^st of February we should have very little to do. Final house cleaning and some laundry and checking into our hotel.

Our winter seems to have disappeared. It is back to 90 degrees and the nights are no longer chilly. According to locals this weather is about three weeks early. We are leaving at the right time as we have no desire to endure another summer here.