Well, I’m back home and have been for almost twenty-four hours. I can’t say that I’m happy to be back, but I will admit that it’s nice to sleep in my own bed. ☺ I got back last night at about 1015 and actually arrived home after going through passport control and customs at about midnight. That meant that I have only today to get ready for school tomorrow.

Today has been a mix of trying to put the videos I took in Sri Lanka into some meaningful sense so I can upload it to youtube, doing laundry, and of course planning my next holiday in June. I know that I’ll be going back to the US for a week, but after that there are some things that I really want to do. The first is tour India, then I had so much fun being around water that I’m thinking about taking a sailboat around Turkey’s beaches, (sounds expensive, but it really isn’t).

I loved my time in Sri Lanka, in fact I don’t that I’ve ever really enjoyed myself the same way I did for the week I was there. It was a mix of sun, relaxation, and lots of water sports. Most of the people I talked to were warm and friendly, and I think that I actually made a friend or two.

Since this is my last entry for Spring Break 2013, I’ll close by saying thank you to anyone who took the time to either read the blog, or stayed up with my daily entries. I had a great time and I hope that you enjoyed reading about my adventure.

This morning I headed to the dive shop to drop off the videos of my dive. When I was filming the dive master asked for a copy as well as the others that were on the dive. I felt good to do something for them…since I shortened their dives. ☹ It was my way of saying sorry, and from the reaction of the dive master he was grateful. It made me feel good. The one thing that happened was when I walked into the shop, there was about three people that held out their thumbs, to suggest I was going to go diving again. At that moment I wanted to go diving again so bad. I can actually envision me spending time underwater… up until yesterday I couldn’t.  The problem was that I didn’t bring any cameras and I’ve been accustomed to filming what I do.

Speaking of that, I’ve become the techno-geek. I have, in no particular order, a laptop, an iPhone, a Sony prosumer camera, a gopro camera, two tripods, and I use them all the time. I seem to judge what I’m going to do by the equipment I pack with me for the day. To be honest, I don’t think that I like it. Not that long ago I simply grabbed my camera and started walking, now I’m laden down with all sorts of equipment.

Today is the last day here and the staff at the hotel have been very nice to me. I wrote something about them earlier but I think that I deleted it before I added it to the blog, but they have really been nice. I don’t know what I seem like to them, but I have almost become a part of their family. I’m starting feel like I’m their rich uncle.

I know I’ll write more about how much fun I’ve had here, but I’m so content right now that it only seems appropriate that I mention it now, I really am having a great time!

It’s 8 in the morning on my last day here in Sri Lanka and I’m not looking forward to leaving when the taxi picks me up at 12. It’s probably the best time to leave though because as I write this, I can see someone staring off in the distance towards the surf. It reminds me of how I felt when my feet first touched the beach here… I was in awe of the beauty of everything that I could see, I don’t know if “awe” is the correct word, maybe “dream-like” is better. There was a feeling of, “I can’t believe I’m here.”

Yesterday I really didn’t have any plans so I decided to go back to the fish market, it’s where I was when I took the photos of the monitor lizards swimming. Unfortunately I didn’t see any lizards (or anything of interest there), so I decided to walk along the railroad tracks. It sure seemed that I was the only tourist that ever goes into the area. Everywhere I went people were yelling, “hello” towards me, usually followed by, “where are you from?” That is always awesome to be treated so nicely, but sometimes people were saying hello to me from 20+ meters away. At one point an old man (fisherman) stopped me and asked me, in very broken English, to come to his yard, I hesitated, but obliged. He then asked me to take a picture of his son, I hesitated again thinking that he would then try to charge me for the opportunity of photographing his family. Pretty soon I was taking a photo of his wife, and his other son. They asked me to come in a sit with them, but I declined… because I didn’t have an exit plan should things get awkward. Turns out that they did want something from me, they wanted me to send them the photos that I took. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but it was such a humbling moment to think that they didn’t have a camera and had to ask a stranger to take some photos of their family.

I also finally made a true souvenir run last night. I hate buying things for others since I never know what to buy, but when it’s a “last minute” type of thing it makes buying much easier. There’s no real worrying about the price or if it is the best item to buy, you just buy it. So going last night was the best thing for me to do, almost like going Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve, something that I used to do. For the items that I bought, I probably paid more than I should have, but at least I actually bought something.

One last note, as I was uploading my blog entry the power went out in the city. Not too much of a problem since everything I do is based on batteries, except for the wifi connection at the hotel so I can’t finish the blog entry right now.

It’s so strange how I’m being treated at the hotel, it seems that I’m getting too much attention. I’m not sure why, but I kind of feel uncomfortable how I can’t seem to look up from the computer without seeing someone watching me. I think I’d be happier if the taxi was leaving right now. Speaking of that, the hotel owner told me that her daughter was going to be going with me, I guess I’m paying for it. Also I have been asked by a woman waitress here what my Facebook account was so her daughter could connect with me. It has really been strange.

Well, this is my last day here hanging around on the beach, watching sunsets, and generally thinking that the world is a great place. In about 24 hours I’ll be heading back to Colombo and to the flight that will take me back to reality. In the last six days I’m come to really understand why some people like to go to a resort for their vacation. Where I am at is by no means a resort, but it’s the closest thing that I have come to in my life. I sleep, eat, and relax at the hotel, the beach I swim at is in front of the hotel, I guess that my last week was just like being at resort.

I really don’t have much to do today except to plan my taxi ride to Colombo for tomorrow, maybe get some souvenirs, and drop of the dive videos to the dive center. Speaking of that, have you ever been embarrassed of something that you did that you wish you could just file as, “oh well, nobody will remember me?” That’s what has been going on in my head about screwing up on the dive yesterday. The only problem is, is that they will have a video of me “screwing up” by going through my air so quickly. It’s not really a major screw up, but having it rattle around in my head for the last day, I have blown it into a major issue.

One last thing about diving, I really had a fun time. Although there wasn’t a lot of sea life, the water was really clear, and most of all I didn’t have any problems with my ear(s) on the second dive, and that is saying a lot. It pretty much means that I can go diving now when I want… well, I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but at least I know that diving is a realistic possibility from now on.