Home in "Owan Peesh" (One Piece)

DTW Customs Officer: How long were you overseas miss?

Me: Ten months, sir.

DTW Customs Officer: What were you doing there?

Me: I was there on a Fulbright grant.

DTW Customs Officer: Ah, so you're one of the smart ones, huh? Welcome home Ms. Palit.

I almost cried when the customs officer behind the glass partition thing uttered those words. Indeed, its wonderful to be back. I'm sitting in my friend's house on a lake in Wayland, MI and the sun is shining. We had cocktails, gossip, and board games last night, and went out on the lake this morning (in Kim's boat!). My friends showed me how to "knee board," which is apparently a form of entertainment in which you are dragged around the lake behind the boat, clinging desparately to a piece of orange foam on a rope while trying not to die. I, too was made to engage in this "knee boarding," and I barely made it out alive. I feel a deep sense of gratitude towards the individual who invented life jackets. It was fun in a masochistic kind of way.

It's quite bizarre being back, and even more bizarre not having jet lag. I slept through the night and I seem to be hungry at all the appropriate times. I feel like everything here is a perfect, gleaming white movie set, not real life. There are no trash piles, or livestock, or human beings on the street. All of the shops are indoors, there are actual street signs, and everyone has a car. It's a bit haunting to me, especially coming from a city of millions of people and seeing ALL of them ALL the time.


My flight(s) was long and grueling, and at the end of it I smelled, I'm sure, like I had been left in the woods for a week. The Northwest airlines staff aboard both of my long-haul flights left much to be desired in the customer service department. They barked "what!?" at the passengers if we needed something, rolled their eyes at their fellow staff persons, and treated the South Asian passengers as if they were either deaf or dumb ("I cannot understand you sir...what are you saying to me...NO sir...We do NOT have tea, sit down...). I wrote a pretty scathing comment card and mailed it in. When we landed in Detroit, I think this guy was trying to 'pick me up.' He told me he saw me on the flight and that I looked like an "interesting" (does he mean weirdo?) person, and that we should chat over a cup of coffee before the next flight. He's a Dutch-Indian guy named Vikram. I politely accepted, even though I only had 30 minutes until my flight back to GR. I went to change my clothes, and he stood me up. *Sigh* Our love lasted only the length of a security check, but I will always remember...

I wore my burqa on the flight to Grand Rapids just to see how people from my hometown would react. I think I gave an old man in the lounge area a heart attack and none of the ground staff looked me in the eye when they wished me a good flight. I chatted with this lady the whole way back (26 min flight), and when she asked me where I was from, I said in my best West Michigan accent "oooh, I wuz born eeand reeezed in Greeeand Reeeapids."

Mom, Dad, and my aunt and uncle visiting from India greeted me as I de-planed (wearing my burqa). They had a big sign written in Bengali that read "Come on Home, Tanya," complete with the American, Indian, and Bangladeshi flags taped to it. Awwww. I knelt down in the GRR airport and kissed the carpet. It's good to be home.