back in the states and a bit overwhelmed

I've gotten about 11 hours of sleep total in the last 5 or 6 days--the homeward journey began at noon thursday a week ago when two fellow nuns drove me into Chiang Mai from Wat Phradhat Sri Chomtong (about 50 km/28-ish miles) to cancle my non-immigrant visa at immigration. I finished my Reiki 2 certification and got a ride to the bus station where I bought a first class ticket to Bangkok. This means there was Thai karaoke playing on the bus's TV, but only for a few hours and it wasn't ridiculously loud like on the dreaded VIP busses...I was in one of the 4 front seats above the driver so I had some extra legroom. It was a pretty sweet ride, really. I managed to sleep a couple hours, anyway. Then I ordered a police clearance from the Royal Thai Police Headquarters in Bangkok (required if you want to work with kids in some states and you've lived outside the country for more than one consecutive month), went and had a skirt taylored by a woman with a sewing machine set up on the sidewalk (fun communication adventure there--thank goodness for pictionary!), bought a CD/DVD/VCD/mp3 player (malls--blech!), and wandered the streets of bangkok for a couple hours, got a thai reflexology foot massage (home work, you know! good to refresh one's skills before returning to practice), and then it was time to catch the bus across town to the new airport.

The first leg of my BKK to LAX flight was a 5.5 hour trip to Seoul, South Korea with zero sleep. My neighbor at Wat Phradhat lived in Seoul for 3 years and kindly drew up a map and gave me some information, but I accidentally put it with my other papers and into my checked baggage it went! d'oh! So I went to the closed tourist info booth at the airport and grabbed some brochures and maps to look at as the sun rose over the trees outside the terminal window. By the time I finished perusing the brochures, the counter was open and the very energetic and kind counter lady helped me find some attractions I'm interested in. I went to a mahayana prayer service midday at a beautiful temple in the hills above Seoul after a $2 sushi breakfast with two big veggie rolls, a small bowl of miso soup, and a small bowl of pickled radish! suhweet! I then went to the royal palace, where I decided to sit and meditate for about 10 minutes. In that time, I estimate 6 or 8 people came and took my picture! Including one person with a fairly expensive sounding camera that took about 8 or 10 shots. I did not look up. I then wandered the streets of seoul a bit, took the subway to the train to Seoul's new international airport to fly to LA overnight--11 hours with probably 4 hours fitfully sleeping in travel class? The last leg of the journey was a walk to the airport bus to the metro green line to the blue line, walked two city blocks (a half mile?) to a bus that got me within about 1/4 mile from home. I dropped my stuff, headed out to dinner, and then stayed up till 3AM visiting with my dad and then getting orientated, slept 5 hours and that brings me to now.

phew. More when I recover the brain power to organize thoughts in some rational fashion.