Last day

Yesterday was out last day in Cambodia. We went to a Vietnamese church around 9:00 for a youth service. That was pretty cool. I talked with a friend who was there and he told me some words I wanted to know in Viet., i.e. "poop," "throw up," and "fart." You know, stuff like that... important words. The whole service was cool, and just hanging out with old friends was awesome. Eating lunch was fun too. I joked with some friends in Vietamese. We just said stuff like, "Chi la qui Sa-tan," or, "Em khung." One kid from last year asked me, "Anh co nguoi yeu chua?" I answered, "Co roi. Co mot nghin ban gai xung quanh the gioi." Sorry if you don't know what that means.
After that, dad and I met a friend (Sandy) at like 5:00. We got dinner with him and hung out until we left for the airport. He stayed and talked with us at the airport a while. That was cool. We just joked around together one last time before I went back home. It was fun to actually be with him, hanging out like real friends, instead of being confined to Skype chats (not that those aren't good). One thing was cool though. Instead of saying, "Goodbye. See you next year," as most of the kids told us when leaving, he simply said, "See you in two weeks."
Now comes the hardest part: returning to the normal, the mundane, the average. After a week like this, how can what I go through everday in the US be satisfying? After a man eats delicacies from the king's table, how can he go back to enjoying his old, bland pheasant food? But going back and eating the pheasant's food isn't the worst part. What's worse is that a man will come to enjoy the pheasant's food. After some time of his senses being numbed by the bland flavors and consistency, he will forget how good the king's food was. The man will be satisfied with eating trash and leftovers with no variation in taste. He will come to think that his dumpster heap of tasteless goods is a gourmet feast. He will forget the joy of eating with the king, and thus desire it no longer. That is a far worse crime. There is nothing wrong with the man eating the same leftovers day in and day out, it is even alright if he sees the leftovers as better than having no food at all. But, the moment he thinks that the leftovers are a delicacy, that those are as good as it gets, then he is to be pitied. He has forgotten the glory of dining with the king.
So, maybe returning to the everyday routine isn't the worst thing in the world (as terrible and horrifying as it is!). As long as I don't forget the splendor of a week like this, the joy brought by friends, the pay-off of studying a language no one at "home" speaks; as long as the man doesn't forget the taste of the delicacies offered by the king, maybe returing to the bland, everday existence isn't the worst thing in the world (as terrible as it is).
In the end, I wouldn't trade this week for anything in the world.
"Toi se lay gi bao dap Duc Gie-ho-va Ve cac on-lanh ma Ngai da lam cho toi?"
- Thi-thien 116:12