Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Back to Reality

Antarctica truly feels like another planet. The animals are ridiculously tame and don't know that humans are evil. The scenery is so beautiful that it almost feels fake. The water and air are so pure that they can't possibly share this same polluted earth with the rest of us. I'll respond to all my email and post a full write-up at some point but this post is just to say hi.

Obviously the trip was unreal but we were informed on our second day that my gramps passed away. I'm still, a week later, pretty depressed about the news and I'm looking forward to calling my brother and going to see my grandmother. I arrive in San Diego tomorrow(Wednesday) at 9 AM and then fly up to Portland on Thursday morning in time for the "Celebration of Life" ceremony on Friday. I'm really grateful that my grandma decided to push back the ceremony so my mom and I could make it. It's not a tragedy because old people do pass away but it felt ridiculously sudden. I saw him on Christmas and again between the Redskins and Panthers playoff games and he was his old self, harping at me to go back to school and take care of my little brother. I think spending the weekend with family will do a lot to help me get over it and I'm really looking forward to hugging my grandma. It was really, really, REALLY frustrating having 8 days left in the trip and absolutely no way to talk to anyone. Ah well, it'll be OK soon.

I'm flying back down to San Diego next Monday and packing my things. I'm going to be back in Seattle by next weekend, hopefully by Sunday. I'm excited to be coming home and I kind of regret the fact that I didn't spend much time in San Diego but the travel that I've done has obviously been worth it. I'll try to post some pictures from Antarctica tomorrow before heading up to Vancouver.

R.I.P Mitsuru Yoshimoto. I´m going to miss him.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry about your Granmps man. Let me know when you come up. Take care buddy

davis

Jimmy said...

Sorry for your loss Schaef, but I'm glad you'll get a chance to be with your grandmother and family to help everyone get through this. Give me a call anytime if you need someone to talk to.
-Minh ba...Minh ba...Minh ba
(my name is)

MHG said...

I hope the celebration of his life goes gloriously. My last-remaining grandparent passed away in December--if you want to shoot some hoops and chat on either of your visits through Portland give me a buzz.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry to hear about your Gramp's. I remember when I was lucky enough to meet him when we drove down to see them. I remember that he was giving you a hard time then too. Hang in there.

Silky