All good things come to an end. Today is my last day in Sri Lanka, and I am not sure I will ever come back. A month in a foreign country — not too shabby.

Reflecting on the time, the changes are funny. My feet are constantly dirty, and my hair, ravaged by the humidity has just given up and turned into a British fro, if such a thing exists. My mom would cry. I have been so busy while here that it has been hard to keep up with myself.

It would have made sense to learn some Sinhala while I was here, but for some reason I never did. Somehow in my personal labor camp it seemed unimportant. One more victim of lack of time. Yesterday, however, in the emotional preparations for my return, a classic moment crossed the line, linking this life to my past.

“How do you say ‘no’?”, I asked Kara. She had been yelling at a driver who had intentionally taken us out of our way in order to make some extra cash.

She looked at me, stunned at the realization that I had somehow missed these essentials. “Nae” (sounds like “Neh”), she said. I looked back at her and burst into hysterics.

“What?” she asked, my laughter having scared the driver back onto the right course. Kara had said this so many time during my time in Sri Lanka, and I had always found it a bit amusing. Carly, in moments of indifference or annoyance would respond in exactly the same way. “Neh.” I assumed that Kara was doing the same. To find out that all this time Carly had been accurately expressing her emotions in Sinhala was a bit too much.

The other day, Carly sent me an email. “Write in your blog”, she said. The truth is that I have a half dozen half finished entries that I have been to busy to finish. So, in short Carly, “Nae.”