Bye Alex!

I awake the next day just before noon. Yes...noon. I've heard a lot about the aquarium, so I figure I should go. I'm not much a fan of sea life, but I hear the aquarium is wonderful. I walk the ten minutes down to Darling Harbor and enter the aquarium where an over zealous Ozzie insists on taking my picture in front of the fake water backdrop. It is, afterall, his job. I wind my way through the many different fish and finally make it to the shark and manatee tank. I spend a good half hour here just mezmorized by the huge turtles, sharks, stingrays, and manatees in this tank.
In the evening I realize I don't have any food so I hit the grocery store, and as I'm eating in the hostel kitchen Alex walks in. He has to leave in about an hour-and-a-half. We discuss him giong back to Afghanistan and that feeling when you know your vacation is drawing to a close. I think most of us can relate to the feeling of having to leave a wonderful vacation, but not the feeling of leaving your vacation to go back to a war. I can already see his demeanor start to change as he prepares himself to go back to his life of constant paranoia.
We decide to take a walk to Darling Harbor to watch the World Cup on the jumbotrons that have been erected over the water. We walk hand in hand on the way back to the hostel to get his backpack before he heads for the airport. I walk him to the train station, and we say goodbye. Something I'm all too familiar with, but it's something you prepare yourself for every time you meet anybody new.