After three restful weeks visiting my family in the US, I've arrived back in Thailand. Even though I was working while I was there, I had a wonderful visit home.
My parents have recently moved from my hometown to my college town, Waco. While the town is not quite "home" yet, after spending three weeks in the beautiful, quiet hill country neighborhood outside of the city, I'm definitely on board with the move! Things are a little slower and a lot more peaceful in Waco than up in the Dallas area where I spent most of my life.
And anyway, it's not like it's a totally unfamiliar place! I spent four very formative years of my life in Waco, and have visited it to see my sister and brother-in-law pretty much every year since graduating! Waco is a super cool little city in the heart of Texas, and it's very livable.
I probably had more fun visiting Waco than I would have in my own hometown of Arlington!
We went out nearly every day for a walk at Cameron Park, the second-largest city park in the US (after New York City's Central Park), with its winding hiking trails and beautiful, scenic walks along the Brazos River.
A real highlight of my visit home was the few days I got to hang out with my little brother. Because of the pandemic, and because we've both been living abroad (me in Thailand and him in Israel) for the past few years, we realized that we hadn't actually been together in person since my visit home in 2019, just before COVID.
I also got to spend a lot of time with my brother-in-law and my little nephews (age 3 and 1). Because of COVID, I've gotten to miss spending a lot of time with them, which I was super happy to make up over these past three weeks. The little dudes are tons of fun, and I was really happy to get to be an uncle. Being an uncle is great! You get to have all the fun parts of being a dad, but when the kids get tired or grumpy, they can just go back to their parents.
I visited the Cameron Park Zoo with my mom and the Waco Mammoth Site with my dad.
I also toured the Mayborn Museum, the natural history museum on the Baylor University campus (go Bears!). The Mayborn played a huge role in the excavation of the Waco mammoths, as well as the preservation of the Glen Rose dinosaur footprints!
There's actually a lot to see and do in and around Waco, but after a really busy few months, I was pretty content to stay at home. It was nice to be back in Texas.
On one of my final nights in town, we went to the local China Spring High School football game. If you aren't from Texas, you might not realize how big high school football is. It's a massive community event, and even small, rural schools boast impressive stadiums. China Spring HS has one of the top high school varsity teams in the state, and I was so excited to see them play! My brother-in-law and I took my little 3yo nephew out to his very first football game.
My nephew wasn't super interested in seeing the Cougars play, but I have a feeling that in a few years, he'll love it. Both of his parents are huge football fans!
I, on the other hand, had a great time at the game! China Spring won something like 58-10, and it was a fantastic game.
It was really just fun to be back out at an American football game. We don't have that in Thailand!
I've also really missed those Texas sunsets!!!
After three weeks, it was time to fly back home to Thailand. My tickets were booked very last-minute, so my trip home took the annoying route of DFW-LAX-NRT-BKK and took nearly 40 hours to complete.
My transit through Los Angeles was stressful, but by the time I was on the plane to Tokyo (the long flight), I could finally relax.
Hours later, I arrived at Narita International Airport. It was still a day before Japan would open to tourists after the COVID-19 pandemic, and the airport looked deserted; very much like Bangkok's Survarnabhumi did just a year ago.
Perhaps due to their aging population, and perhaps due to their overall cautious nature, the Japanese government has been unwilling to open their borders to tourists and visitors, even during the most recent Olympic games.
Finally, nearly three years into the pandemic, Japan is one of the final countries to begin slowly allowing tourism once again.
At the airport, I got to partake in one of my very favorite things about Japan: the vending machines! I had a Boss Coffee (one of my favorites in Japan).
It was nice to be home. I'm back in Thailand now, and I've got some adventures coming up soon. Stay tuned for more.
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