I've been back in San Francisco to stay since Aug. 9. I was working by Sept. 5 and finally found a place to live which I moved into on Oct 6.

Now I'm sitting here on a Friday night with nothing to do. I've called everyone I can think of but haven't gotten any bites.

So, I decided to finally sit down with my bank statements and credit card bills that I amassed during my 5 month trip to Southeast Asia and figure out what it cost me.

Drum roll please . . .. .

For 131 days in Southeast Asia I spent $5,461 American including flights, vaccinations, travel insurance and other preparations. That is $41.69 cents per day for my trip.

Only including expenses while I was traveling, my trip cost $29.31 a day.

I wish I had known how affordable it was sooner. I would've gone way before I did. If only I had done the research.

I can't imagine what it must be like for someone using Pounds or Euros. The dollar was not worth what it used to be when I was traveling (Jan 2005-June 2005).

I'm back in SF and I'm freezing.

While I was travelking, I told many people that it is cool here and that you always need a jacket and rarely need shorts. I just forgot exactly what that means.

It means that the color is drained from your face and your nose runs and your hair gets all fly away and your nails break. It means that it is hard to get out of bed and out of the shower because you will be cold.

It means that it is harder to motivate to go out and it means that it is harder to look good. (Perhaps those two should be reversed)

I was never a heat person but I got used to the heat. Now, I'm not a cool weather person.

I'm having trouble coping with the constant wind too.

I've been here for 4 days now. I've lived here for 10 years and I haven't run into a single person that I even recognize. I haven't met a new person in 4 days. I haven't socialized with anyone outside of 4 friends.

I forgot how much harder one has to work in order to socialize. I have my phone back on so that should get easier, but I'm going to try to head back east to visit my parents and live for free for a while.

It is definitely awkward living in friends homes. No matter how many times they say I am welcome, I feel like I am in the way. I am going to try to house sit in July and then find a sublet for August. Originally, I was going to look for a sublet for July, but I have two friends who need a house sitter.

I seem to be recovering well from the Dengue Fever. I get sleepy. My first day back, I slept from 11 PM to 4:30 PM the next day- Combination jet lag and many nights of crappy sleep in the hospital.

Had no problem sleeping that evening or since. I hope that is still dengue recovery. Otherwise, I am one sleepy person in SF.

Being back is going to be hard. I knew it would be. The socializing is definitely the area that is going to require the most adjusting. I'm not looking forward to it being work.

So I managed to get degue fever and spend a week in the hospital. Dengue is identified b/c your platelettes go down to abnormally low levels and something about the red blood cell volume of your blood.

Dengue fever is carried by mosquitos that bite in the day time. The symptoms I had were aching, sore, tender joints and muscles especially my lower back and a high fever that kept spiking. I also lost my appetite. Wanting to vomit at the smell of food makes recovery difficult. I had no energy.

I would probably still be there if my doctors wife hadn't brought me some fruit and made me some oatmeal and pasta (not together).

I had a great doctor. He was American and he visited me twice a day and generally stuck around for a bit of conversation because he could tell that I was feeling very isolated.

Being in the hospital in a foreign country is incredibly depressing. I had no one to talk to. It seemed every time I ran into a westerner they were getting out of the hospital after only being there for 2 days.

I was there for 7 days. I'm not even completely recovered.

This trip has been a bit of a disappointment in the romance department but the nice thing about traveling versus being at home is thta it is easier not to get discouraged.

Even if something doesn't work out there is always someone new to meet. Whether you meet him through someone else or on a bus or in the next city, there is always hope that you just might meet someone great.

You also don't have those old familiar places because you are always moving on both literally and figuratively.

This is in great contrast to home where you tend to have a routine and an insular world and meeting new people on a regular basis feels a bit more contrived.

The constant influx of people and social momentum is something I will definitely miss about traveling.

If the title hasn't already clued you in, if you are over 50 years old, you probably don't want to read this.

He that will make good use of any part of his life must allow a large part of it for recreation.

- John Locke

My trip is winding down. I haven't really done much with the last 4 weeks. The last two of which were an add on.

I think I needed to add on the extra weeks so that I could mentally prepare for coming home. I am ready for it. I'm actually excited about it now. (We'll see how long that lasts.) It is sort of strange because I have not really wanted chocolate or bread much this trip but suddenly, I really do. It is like all of my old habits are returning in preparation for my return.

This has been a good trip. It has mostly been about having fun.

My South America trip and my France living and Europe traveling were character building experiences. I think they both changed me in significant ways.

I can't say that about this trip. Perhaps I will discover some change when I get home and am removed from the experience. Or, perhaps I am mature enough that the core of my being is not going to change much.

I thought maybe this trip would help me be a more fun person in general, but when the responsibilities of volunteering were there, I wasn't nearly as much fun. It is unfortunate how responsibility can oppress the fun in some people.

For me, it is really just a matter of sleep. I can't be fun without enough sleep and I can't work hard without enough sleep and it is hard to find enough time for all three.

But back to the fun.

This trip has been about having all of the fun I never had. I'm glad I did it. I made up for lost time. It has been a lot like being in college- easy to meet people and everyone has a common interest.

I am going to my 10 year college reunion when I return. I think it is a good way to end a trip like this where in a lot of ways, I got to travel back in time and apply the "if I knew then, what I know now" knowledge.

It was a rare opportunity.

I think people at the reunion will be surprised by me. Those who knew me pegged me to be an upwardly mobile career woman. I'll be showing up jobless, homeless and clueless.

But happy.

I think it is important to be committed to one's happiness. I think there is a lot to be said for pursuing unconventional dreams. I expect some people will judge me to be not very successful and others will be very jealous of the choices I have made.

Personal growth wise and relationship wise, I have a lot to show for the past 10 years, but I am not particularly proud of anything on my resume. In so many ways I am in exactly the same place I was when I graduated college. Only then, I thought the world was my oyster and the right career would make itself obvious to me over time.

It seems neither of these things are true.

Even so, I am happy to be beginning the journey again instead of plodding down the same path because that was the way I had been walking, and it is a long way back to the junction.

I don't expect it to be easy, but I have hope that I can find a more steady and true happiness on a new path.

Only time will tell.

I have been very lucky to not have many problems with mosquitos on my trip. Other people would be getting bitten and I wouldn't. Or on the few occassions when I did, I just got a red dot with a white circle around it- not raised and not itchy.

That was all until I arrived on Koh Phangan.

The mosquitos here are the size of small birds and they leave raised, welty, itchy bites.

I'm not thrilled about it.

The people in the Internet are so chatty that I can't concentrate enough to write.

They were talking about they are 25 and feel like the oldest people here.

It's a good think no one ever guesses I am over 30. They'd think I was some sort of disfunctional freak.

I've noticed Live Strong wristbands on lots of people throughout my travels. People also have wristbands for everything else you can think of. There are also a lot of fake Live Strong wristbands.

They are really quite popular.

Don't feel like writing much so this and all entries after this are going to be brief and concise.

Koh Phi Phi volunteering was hard work. I discovered that I can't swim while holding a cinder block.

There was a great sense of community. I was there for just under 2 weeks. The weather was often rainy which was not how I wanted to end my trip. Coming home to a cold shower when it is not really hot out is not pleasant.

A lot of Thai people now live in guest houses since their homes were destroyed. I shared a room and we had 3 sets of Thai neighbors. Some spoke a bit of English others not really. We had a good time though.