Bodies at Rest

One of the strangest, and most wonderful, parts of being on the road for a year straight is how little it takes to make you feel like you're settling down. After many months spending every couple days in a new city and a new bed, these 10 days in Asmara feel like we've found a little home in the northeast corner of Italo-Africa. Every morning, when Meg takes off for the hospital, I head to the cafe down the street, order a cappuccino (though my low tolerance for caffeine is making me consider switching back to tea so I stop freaking everyone out by jittering in my seat) and watch the world go by, occassionally reading a page or two from a book we bought about the Ethiopian-Eritrean war. I walk through the streets staring at the 50s era Art Deco architecture that the Italians brought here and jot down some ideas for an upcoming blog entry. After all the dramatic sights we've seen and exotic locales we've visited, so many of my favorite moments of the trip come from the rare moments where we get to play house. Last night, we cooked some dinner in the little pensione we're staying in, brought in some beers from the local bar (it's actually more expensive than just drinking them in the bar because you have to leave a deposit for the bottles) and worked on a NYT crossword that Cathy Pearson brought us from Texas. At one point, Meg came back from the bathroom with her pants inexplicably hiked up to her chin and couldn't stop giggling for 20 minutes. We collapsed on the bed and laughed at everything around us. Then we fell asleep as the cathedral across the street gonged, and I silently revelled in the fact that I won't have to pack up my bag again till Monday. Life off the road is good.

--rahul