What Goes up, Must Come Down - the Return Home - United Kingdom

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United Kingdom

People who don't know their Costa Rica from their Costa del Sol vaguely inquire if I "had a nice time"?

All my new ideas, thoughts and attitudes are diluted with my old life and British attitudes. It really is true, we do all talk about the weather and moan about such inconsequential things.

Always nice to know you've been missed

Personal hygiene standards are raised and buying a round brings a tear to the eye as you translate the cost of a glass of wine here into a week's accommodation there.

Unpacking my backpack for good felt unnatural but smells emanating from the laundry were very natural. Fluffy clean towels are my ultimate luxury, closely followed by hot showers.

The bathroom is a source of fascination. Gone are the holes in the ground and the constant need to carry toilet paper. Flushing paper down the toilet seems naughty.

Whilst I was away all my clothes grew. To have a choice of attire leaves me bewildered.
It is no longer possible to carry everything I own on my back.

I can walk the streets anonymously, no longer the only blonde in town. No street stalls sprawling all over the roads selling unknown fruits that taste divine.

I must remember not to haggle at the supermarket checkouts.

I travel by private car now, on a road of tarmac where there are rules. On a bus I no longer share my seat with a sack of rice and a chicken. No tuk-tuks, cyclos or camels pound the road.

Water is drinkable from the taps and an upset stomach is a surprise rather than a routine.
My mosquito net is replaced my a duvet and that bump in the night is the central heating not curious Amazonian animals.

My friends and family are slowly bring me back into society. I return the favour by leaving them square eyes from digital slideshows. Some edge away from me after tales of tropical diseases and parasitic squatting!

It's short-term contracts from now on. The travel bug, like those persistent mosquitoes, has well and truly drawn blood.

It has been a week since I returned. I am still hovering under the radar of society, trying to synchronise the lessons I learned with this decadent, safe,green and pleasant land.

It is time to update my C.V. if only I could stop thumbing through guidebooks of the U.K!

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