I'm torn

After the first week or so of being home had gone by, people started to ask me if I'm bored and ready to go back.

So after having been in Texas for nearly a month now (Wow, time flies!) I'm starting to finally be able to answer that question.

I'm certainly not "bored." I've been out with my friends more times than I can count and there are some people I still (sadly) have not seen. It's been great to see some of my best friends in the world.

It's also been good to see my parents. I worry about them a little more now that I'm home and realize how much they omitted during our Skype conversations, but I know they're fine.

I've also been tutoring the Korean exchange students and that's been a lot of fun. It's actually an incredibly simple job and we play a lot of games so it's been a blast. My 15-year-old female student constantly confides in me and so it's also been nice to be someone that a kid feels like she can look up to and go to. 

The only thing I've found that is driving me crazy is that I only have about two hours of my time each day that I actually have to do something. Each afternoon I go off to tutoring for a couple of hours but otherwise the whole rest of the day is just there.

I'm going insane with so much free time.

The exercising was helping a bit because then I had a routine that lasted from about 4 p.m. until 9 p.m. of working, cooking, eating, cleaning, running, showering. But most of that isn't very meaningful.

I'm going to try to start dedicating some time each day to reading because I know that will help some. I also need to start in on Christmas presents. I'm making a lot of presents this year (because I'm broke... ahem, it's more thoughtful, dammit!) so I definitely need to get started on those.

As far as the itch to go out and explore like I would be doing if I were abroad right now, well, I think I've got that figured out. Austin (all of Texas really) has tons of festivals and interesting events every weekend. I've decided going to stuff like that which is generally free entry will really help a lot because at least then I'll be doing something new and different each week.

The big plus to using the tourist approach to Austin is that I'm getting to know a lot more about my city while I'm here.

Flannery and I are also planning a trip to Fredericksburg for some ice skating and shopping (like last year when I was home), a trip to Johnson City to see the Christmas lights (I love the ridiculous light displays at Christmas time!) and a trip to Marfa (just for the hell of it).

So small town Texas, prepare yourselves!

So the answer to the question is that I'm torn — I love being home but I miss being abroad — but I think I'm going to be just fine.