July 21
I flew back to the US from Hong Kong–connecting in Japan. I took a picture in the Tokyo airport just for Chad!
July 22
I arrived at LAX. The officer who took the customs forms congratulated me on my four-month journey. Yay. It was quite the journey. I’m glad I made time for it.
Two people asked me for money at the exit of the airport at LAX–one for some children and another for Scientology. I gave money for the children because I needed to break a 20. It seemed false, but I really needed to break that 20. No one pestered me for lodging.
I felt like a homeless bum, walking around with a huge backpack and scruffy hair. I had no home, no hotel reservation, no job, little savings, and no car. But I wasn’t worried. I could crash with parents (in Las Vegas) and friends (in LA) while I figured out what to do for income.
I didn’t want to return to my previous employer because they were a Microsoft shop (programming in C#). I wanted to shift my focus to open source technologies and languages (like Python and Ruby). However, I had little experience with open source. So it might be a little difficult to pick up where I left off–money-wise.
