party tricks, II

Last night my parents threw a little Christmas party. The party was sort of in my honor, or at least was an opportunity to spend some time with friends of my parents who hadn't me since I took off for Botswana. Some of these folks I've known most of my life but had barely seen in the ten years since my sister's wedding. It was pretty amazing. One of the strangest things about being in Botswana was the feeling that I didn't have a history. When I got to Botswana in 2006, there were maybe two or three people I had met during my first trip in 2004 who remembered me, but that's all. There was one other student doing in research in Botswana who I've known since my first year of grad school, but we only say each other intermittently. So to be in a room with people who met me when I was three years old or so and to get caught up on the lives of their own children (who I knew as a child) was oddly comforting, if a little jolting.