I've been in the USA for a few weeks now, and the end of my trip is approaching quickly. In fact, in about a week, I'm heading back to Australia. While I've been away, a few things have happened:
I've been sick almost the whole time. The pollution levels here are a bit higher than what I'm used to, so that might be the culprit. I also have a knack about visiting my hometown when there's some kind of illness going around. So I caught that and have been semi-miserable with respiratory tract issues.
My mother-in-law passed away. My husband's mother passed away while I've been away so he had to go back to India for a while. I thought about heading back to Australia and possibly to India, but I'm slowly running out of money. I feel bad for not being able to be with my partner right now, but I'm not sure what I can accomplish being in India and with my partner not being out to many people over there. We're scheduled to return to Australia on the same day. He was really close to his mom, so I'm not sure how this is going to go once he sees me.
My mom isn't coming to Australia anymore. This is a two parter. I have mentioned it somewhere else, but there were problems with her getting her passport and the last time I went through everything at the airport, it was absolute chaos and I really wouldn't want my mom to be subjected to that. So, I've decided to just come to the USA more often since my study is almost done.
To make up for that, I have bought my mom a few things. I originally had planned to get her a puppy while I was here, but didn't think I could find her one, so I bought her a watch. Well, one of my friends messaged me with someone who had puppies available and I'm going to go pick one of those up. So instead of paying for one expensive thing, I'm paying for two. Sigh.
I met up with my best friend and we got to hang out and it was really nice. I missed her quite a lot.
I learned Wal-Mart doesn't take Apple Pay (the hard way). I see it as greed, simply. I got up to the self-check out line and had no idea how to use it. I didn't bring any of my cards with me. In so many ways, Australia is now more technologically advanced than the USA. My friend was there to bail me out, thank god.
I got tamales. I'm happy now.
Though I am married to a handsome Indian man, there is a big selection of men that I don't see much in Australia.
I realise how lucky I am to live in Australia rather than the USA. People seem miserable. I'm speaking this from Texas, so that shows it's really bad. The government is failing its people. People are struggling and it's really sad to see. I think that it is only going to get worse over the next few years.
So these are my observations while I've been here. I'm not sure I'll update again, but yeah, so many changes. I'm looking forward to getting back home and back to work. I'll miss my family a lot, of course. My life has been built overseas and it's not something I can abandon.
I hope you are all doing well and I hope you're taking care of yourselves. I'm about to go pick up my mother's new sausage dog (a dachshund of course!). Follow me on Mastodon for the follow-up!