So long, and thanks for all the fish!

I still can't quite bring myself to believe the time has come for us to leave India. In just a few days we will finish packing our bags, check all the cabinets for anything we might have overlooked, and load Prithvi in the crate for her first trip to America. Prithvi will leave her "native place" and we will leave a city that has been our home for the past two years. I totter back and forth between melancholy about all of the people and quintessentially Indian things I will miss and boundless excitement about moving back to Washington. Luckily, even with this confusing set of feelings I think I am finally ready to go. I am ready to go home. I am ready to be anonymous again. I am ready to know what to expect out of a given situation. I am ready for four seasons! I am ready to be close enough to family to visit for just a weekend.

Now that I am ready it is time to say goodbye:

Goodbye friends with whom I have shared countless laughs and sweaty outdoor parties. Goodbye colleagues who patiently taught me about their country. Goodbye Mani, canine King of RA Puram. Goodbye Prakash our cautious and gloriously anti-honking driver. Goodbye Sangeetha with your sambar and dosas and tea. Goodbye little neighbor boys who bark at our door and ask if their friend Prithvi can come out to play. Goodbye fireworks that go off any time of day. Goodbye Moonrakers with your delicious catch of the day. Goodbye Kalpa Druma whose selection of crafts and clothes have made such a dent in so many paychecks. Goodbye mosquitoes; you need to find someone new to plague. Goodbye Tamil and your beautiful curly script. Goodbye cost of living - I will really miss you while we're in Washington!

Goodbye Prithvi Avenue and goodbye Flat 1D. Goodbye Chennai and goodbye India. It's been a blast. Thank you!

Mission Chennai is nearly complete.

-Abbie