They Pay Me For This?!

Sunday morning early and cloudy at base camp. I guess I haven't had much of a taste for writting this week. I can't exactly explain the difference, except for reading madly on breaks, or falling asleep. Mostly falling asleep I guess.

Been a pretty mellow week so far, and all things considered. Three staff and two students for most of it is sort of a joke, like they pay me for this, really?! I've felt the passing of time quite acutely this shift, being back at familiar sites which I haven't seen since October. Every new arrival reminds moe of the group with which I was last there, or particular events with particular students. This job can be so much about layers of existences, when so much of every student is an imprint of the ones who've come before. The sense of presence and of fast forwarding and rewinding of their experiences is sort of overwhelming. Particularly how groups end up overlapping, who was once the new student looking up to four veteran travellers is now the mentor to two new arrivals, and the chain grows another round longer. Its sort of hard to explain in words.

I am antsy and impatient tonight. I've been pretty good at staying present in the field lately, but tonight I am far from here. The combination of a lot of the stress of Vanessa's arrival lifting, the girls holding strong together, my impending departure for a while, and an email from a particularly prominent source of my distraction. I really need to just stop using the internet at base, it always only spoils my weeks and I end up regretting it after the fact. The gist was basically hey, wanted to confirm in writting that we have the same time off coming up and that I want to see you and go on some adventures. Te he. And cue the giddy giggle fest that is brewing just beneath the surface and making me want to get home and get on with things already...

GOD vacation will be so good...