gone living

it's funny -- now that it's the day that i'm finally leaving for home (the plan is to spend three weeks at home, so i can spend the christmas and new years holidays with family and friends, in addition to just taking a little break before heading down to south america), my emotions aren't what i thought they'd be. i've been feeling pretty "slow" the last few countries, as if i wasn't able to really take in and appreciate everything that i was seeing, and as a result i've been really looking forward to spending some time at home to decompress, as well as not missing another family holiday.

but i had this moment in the taxi ride to the airport where i felt a strong pang of regret and a real desire not to leave cape town. i can only attribute it to the surprising depth of my feelings for this city -- i really had a wonderful time here, and it was my favorite city that i've visited on this entire trip (and believe me, that's a long list of cities).

i probably would have changed my ticket to stay longer in South Africa (and delayed my visit home by 1-2 weeks), but it's impossible to do so without missing Christmas at home, so i'm sticking with the current plan. but i'll definitely be coming back to south africa in the future, and next time it will be a much longer visit than just 8 days!

i'm really looking forward to getting to spend some time at home, but it's definitely hard to leave a country that you've just fallen in love with.