The Strangeness of Home

I’m home! Well, not really. I’ve spent the past few days in San Francisco, CA and Portland, OR. But the transition back to the states has begun. A few more days and I’ll actually be back in VA.

Transition can be hard. In the few days I’ve been here, I’ve experienced every emotion known to mankind 9,477,920 times as well as shutting down. Within the first few moments, I decided to create a list of things that seem strange and/or caught me off guard and made me think twice. It’s growing pretty rapidly and I’m sure more will be added throughout the next few weeks.

• I can turn off airplane mode and call people without wifi

• I have data

• Airport security personnel that aren’t friendly

• Diversity in airport personnel (so many different ethnicities!)

• I don’t know when I’ll see some of these people again.

• I can read and understand all the signs

• I understand almost everyone

• I can be by myself and do things without taking a buddy along (both terrifying and freeing)

• I can call people. I sort of want to call people just because I can. (What?! I don’t like talking to people on the phone and usually do my best to avoid it.)

• Our hotel shuttle driver is originally from the Philippines (Really  cool to be able to talk about where we’d been and what we ate with someone who knew exactly what we were talking about)

• Cars stopping 10ft back before I even step onto the road (I may have stopped and stared at them in confused amazement. Sorry.)

• The cost of Uber rides (goodbye $5-10 rides)

• Food prices (I just spent 3 days worth of food money on lunch)

• I can pay with my card instead of cash (still prefer cash but it’s nice to not have to find an ATM before doing anything else)

• The size of stores

• Feeling like I need to explain to everyone that I’ve been out of the states for months so please excuse any odd behavior

• I can’t find my friends by listening for the English speaking female voices anymore (Help!)

• Fitting rooms

• Stores having restrooms

• Being able to flush toilet paper

• Not having to convert the price to USD in my head

• I can drink the tap water!

• How spread out everything is (even if buildings are side by side, they are so big it makes it feel more spread out)

• People can understand what I’m saying

• TV shows are in English

• Everyone is wearing shoes inside (Not in Asia anymore)

• The general unfriendliness of most people – even kids (I’m gonna miss receiving big grins and happy waves when I smile at people)

• My coconut oil is solid

• Intersections with stop lights where people actually follow traffic laws and go in an orderly manner

• 65°F now seems slightly chilly

• Desert-like pastries being considered normal breakfast fare

• White eggshells on bland tasting eggs (fresh eggs are so much better)

• The lack of chicken in things

• No rice at restaurants

• Finding myself pleasantly surprised and feeling more normal when I find myself near people who don’t speak English

• Not having a place to put food scraps

• The lack of dogs in the street

• Clothes that aren’t permanently wrinkled from being stored in stuff sacks and packing cubes

• Having to wear a seat belt

• Roads that aren’t packed with traffic

• The quantity of trucks, large SUVs, and minivans

• The scarcity of motorcycles

• The cleanness off the air (yeah, I’m in Cali and can see smoke from the fires in the distance but there’s significantly less smog and diesel fumes)

• The ratio of automatic vs. manual vehicles

• Wide, smooth roads instead of narrow pothole-filled roads with the occasional pole or pile of dirt in the road

• Tipping is a thing again

• Final prices don’t include tax nor are there signs saying how much the tax is

• America is quite the melting pot – so many different people live here

• Jet lag is real

• Certain songs make me really sad right now because they were often sung by squadmates

• Restaurants reminding me of conversations

• The random and odd things that remind me of my squadmates

• Not having automatic travel buddies

• Sidewalks that aren’t multiple levels and or blocked are a thing people!

• The amount of things that make me thing of my squad or home

• The number of messages being exchanged in the squad group chat

• What I think is “normal” is foreign to most

• After Asia, traffic seems pretty tame and uncrowded

• Seeing “missions” has made me cry. I’m not even kidding. I sat on a floor in Powell’s trying not to completely freak out and break down because it caused me to think of the past 11 months and realize all over again that the race is over.

• I still struggle to be completely open about my faith

• I’m comfortable traveling on my own and talking to others

• I am more likely to greet and/or thank others now

• It’s harder to find good, quick food in the States

• I miss street food

• My definition of long in reference to travel has changed

• I love real books that I can touch so much more than kindle

• I wouldn’t have been able to read 110+ books on the race if kindle wasn’t a thing

• Others think I read ridiculously fast

• I’ve learned to better appreciate the differences between eastern and western art styles even if I don’t have the words to describe their differences

• I am a feeler

• I don’t want to go back to “normal” and I’m pretty sure it would be impossible

• Most of the time if I say I travelled for 11 months, people think it’s really cool. If I say it was for missions, they think I’m super weird.

 

 

What’s next? I’m not 100% sure at the moment. What I do know is that it will have to involve worship and dance in some form and/or allow me space to pursue it separately. And sooner or later, I’m gonna be back out on the missions field. I have some ideas for how that could work out but nothing’s solid yet.