Reverse culture shock

…does not seem to be in the cards for me. Home is wonderful, and feels like home. I am constantly getting excited over little things like being able to get a cold glass of water out of the tap, having clean feet, getting Chinese delivered and then microwaving it, etc. It is so easy to live in the US! It is so clean, and pretty!

The first shower back was pretty incredible. I’d occasionally had showers without the shower bag while in Uganda, but never without wearing flip-flops and never with real water pressure. Ahh. 

My flight to NY was long, but seeing Tom and Emily at the airport was wonderful. It was really hot even at 11pm and had that muggy, east-coast-in-August smell. There was a lady working at the toll booth for the parking garage who leaned out of her window and shouted “Go a-ROWND! Go a-ROWND!” at the line of cars, but other than that everyone at JFK seemed so calm and efficient.

Emily has a cool apartment in Brooklyn and we had sushi, fruit salad, cookies, stir fry... it was a wonderful homecoming. We went to a nice outdoor mall the next day and got coffee and checked out this awesome grocery store called Amish that had all kinds of specialty foods and gourmet cheeses and hardwood floors and super-fresh seafood and a liquor room with fine wines and huckleberry vodka samples. I was thinking, wow, wow, wow. 

Tom and I left NY that evening and stopped in Virginia to see my aunt Ruta for a brief but really nice visit. Ruta looks younger every time I see her. 

Tom drove all night (minus a quick rest-area nap) and we got home to the parsonage around 8am. Being home is fantastic. It is such a nice and comfortable place. The ferrets have gotten bigger and are constantly cracking me up. I have had a serious headache and stomach issues for the last two days, but I’m feeling less debilitated today so I can actually start to unpack and things. I have a haircut scheduled in a few hours, and Tom and I are doing some shopping tonight. 

Having access to my whole iTunes library is nice. 

Once I get a little more unpacked I’ll boot up the laptop and put up some videos.