The Visit

Now is where I began to notice things beginning to feel a little different. During the three weeks that my girlfriend and I were apart in December, she had been less eager to contact me than she had been in the past. We had been apart for weeks, even months before, and we always made the time to Skype to stay in touch and stare at each other and just share our daily experiences. This time though, it just didn't seem to work out the same way. I worked a lot, but the time difference was still such that by the time I had to go to bed, her day should have just been starting. She seemed to have plans whenever I tried to set up a time to talk. I tried not to let it bother me, since I know she was out having fun with our friends there, and I wanted her to have fun. The days before I left had been a little stressful just trying to get everything done before I traveled. I did feel kind of bad though as I went to work almost every day as she spent money from our joint bank account on going out. We didn't have much to begin with, the holidays had just passed, and we were about to have almost two weeks of recreation in the states to pay for!

Anyway, she arrived on the east coast after a few consecutive plane rides on the night of December 26. I knew she was exhausted, but she still didn't seem overly excited to see me. Her luggage didn't arrive, and that added to her frustration. I took her to the house I grew up in. She met my parents. During her stay we did have to stay in separate rooms - my parents are a bit old fashioned that way. Needless to say we didn't get much alone time.

During the week, she met my extended family too - everybody loved her. And let me just say here, if you've read my earlier posts, you know I am from the east coast and I moved west with my last significant ex. Therefore I have never had to "bring anyone home" before, and taking the chance with my girlfriend was a huge decision, but an easy one because I was sure she was the one for me. The trip as a whole went well. I took her to Rockefeller Center to go ice skating, something she had never done before. We spent New Year's Eve in Boston, with some of her friends. We went out to bars near where I grew up, and put in a lot of family time as well. When the visit was over, we returned to LA, hung out with our friends there for a couple of days and then boarded a plane to go back to her country. I was very excited. The holidays were over, her meeting my family went well, and I was pumped to get back to our life abroad. We were to move into an apartment with her sister and wouldn't be under her parents' roof anymore. There was a lot to look forward to. I was determined to work hard for the next six months that remained of my visa and get two or three jobs if that's what it took. I wanted us to be able to go out for dinner whenever we wanted and not have to worry about not having the money to pay our cell phone bills. Our plane touched down on January 10th, 2010.