Goodbye to Research Country

I'm sitting here at the airport now, waiting out the hours until I can board my flight.  Tonight is the last night that the military government is imposing a curfew on the streets, and I wanted to make sure that I didn't run into any snags in my travel plans.  The curfew started at 2:00AM; I got to the airport nearly an hour ahead of that.  I feel a twinge of guilt that I never defrosted the refrigerator before I left the apartment, and very mild annoyance that I had to leave behind rather a lot of white undershirts that couldn't fit into my luggage, but other than that, I'm feeling good about my preparations.

As much as Research City can drive a person nuts on an ordinary day in an ordinary year, let alone in a year of upheaval like 2011 has become, I mostly enjoyed my time here.  (And the data I collected is priceless!)  I'm actually sad to say goodbye to the place, although I now recognize that I might be back a lot sooner than one might think.  I certainly didn't expect to return just two years after I'd left, so now there is less of a sense of finality about this leave-taking.  But still: leave-takings bring a little sadness, even when one is generally glad to be going.

At the same time, I have a lot of excitement about returning to the US, and all the adventures that await over this coming academic year.  It's going to be a big year in the Annals of Koshary, so stay tuned.  Updates shall soon resume from Hometown, USA!