Povratak

Dear S.,

I'm very sorry for my late reply... I guess I could write down several excuses to try to justify this, some of them might be reasonable (at least to a certain extent) and some others are totally unacceptable. I would say that behind all those excuses I've been trying to avoid confronting the truth: I'm here!!!! Well, again, me and my "shinjitsu" problems :)

The flight was OK. As usual, the first part was easy but the second flight was kind of looong. But, then again, I was eager to see my parents and that helped to keep the moral high!!!!!

My home country is good... To be honest, it's hard to say. One thing is true, I'm not a gaijin anymore (am I???). Sometimes I think the contrary is true, I mean, once you become a gaijin you would never be able to go back to the original "not-gaijin" state. I definitely changed and even at home I feel I'm different from the average person. So, in summary, I'm still a gaijin. Little things, the way in which people speak is too "tsuyoi", the flavors are strong, the streets are noisy... and I still wait for shopkeepers to be really nice to me (I don't need to tell you that many times I end up disappointed).

I'm not a gaijin anymore in the sense that people don't look at me on the streets... I'm just another person... another brick in the wall!!!!! That's true, I don't get that special treatment anymore. You know, sometimes it is kind of annoying to be treated like a gaijin but some other times it is very nice (and convenient!!).

It was hard to say goodbye. The good thing is that it showed me many friends and beloved people that I have. It was hard saying goodbye to you, my friends, senseis, etc, etc, etc. I think we talked about this, I believe it is good for me to feel sad about this. I feel sad because there was a deep connection with these people and that, at the end, is something to celebrate. So, with tears in my eyes, I feel happy. It was good, it was worth it!!!

Well, I'm going to say goodbye for today. Cheers!!!!

Antonio

PS: I'm really sorry to have kept you waiting for news for so long. Gomen nasai
m -_- m