Advertisement
Published: November 1st 2009
Edit Blog Post
On June 29, 2009 I boarded a plane in Hong Kong to fly home, a place I had not seen in almost a year. I had never been away from the US for so long and I was eager to return to see my family and friends, to hug my puppies, and to experience what all the books call ‘reverse culture shock’. I was lucky enough to have several friends I met in China with me for the first leg of my trip (to Chicago). Cara and I had seats just behind the bulkhead and Kim and Sarah (along with their cats) sat towards the rear. It was a looooong flight, but at last we made it to O’Hare. The trip through customs took a long time but when the customs woman stamped my passport she smiled and said “Welcome back!” I still had a five hour layover in Chicago before a two hour flight to Baltimore, but that little salutation (which I’m sure she mechanically says a hundred times a day) warmed my heart. I was home!
And, amazingly, that reverse culture shock hit us the moment we entered the airport and in a way I was not expecting
Zamies
Zamies with her radar up. at all. In China I became accustomed to the constant background hum of a language I did not fully understand. If someone was speaking English more likely than not it was the person talking to me. And, quietly and without any notice, my brain became lazy. If my ears detected English, they honed in on it without discrimination because, as I said before, it was normally the person I needed to be paying attention to. And then I entered O’Hare airport and EVERYONE was speaking English. It was like a tidal wave in my grey matter. It was like suddenly gaining the ability to hear people’s thoughts and not knowing how to block it out. If someone was talking to me I had to actually concentrate to hear them and to decipher what they were saying against the commotion all around me. It was weird! I, along with my traveling companions, was also all struck by how big everyone is. I know it’s a known fact, but I just have to say it: America, we’re fat!
Seven hours later I arrived safe and sound at BWI. My family was running late so I gathered my luggage and waited for
Big Girl
Big Girl is our big goof. a little bit before finding a payphone to find out where they were. As I was talking to my father I saw my mother and sister in the distance. My mom ran to me and uttered a noise I can only describe as a hushed sort of hysterical giggle. (Love you, Mom!) She then put me in a choke hold-like hug for approximately 45 seconds before releasing me. (Again, Love you, Mom!) My plan for arriving at my parents’ house was to maul each and every dog. But since there are five I decided it was best to just get down on the floor and let them maul me all at once. Maul they did and I was never so happy to be covered in dog fur. I missed them all terribly, especially on days when I was feeling a wee bit in the dumps or grumpy. Because it’s really difficult to be sad or grumpy when you’ve got five Jack Russell Terriers waggling all around you, always happy to see you, and always in the mood for a cuddle.
Being at home was so surreal. I was positively euphoric for the first few days. I walked around on
Gadget
Yes, he was named after the great inspector. a perpetual ‘I’m home’ high. I’m pretty sure I sounded high too. “The sky is sooo blue!” “The sidewalks are sooo clean!” “This coffee tastes sooo good!” “Oh, look! Taco Bell!” That was the second hit of reverse culture shock. The third came in a not so pleasant form: an adverse reaction to food that my gut was no longer accustomed to that sent me running for the bathroom. On the Fourth of July I devoured an entire T-bone steak then lay curled in the fetal position while my family went outside to see the fireworks. Worth it? Hells yeah.
My plan for the summer had been simple. Visit my peeps during the month of July, get a temp job for August, then return to China after the Renaissance Festival’s opening weekend. Sadly, the States’ failing economy pulled the rug out from under August’s plan. So I spent the summer visiting friends and family and (yeah, I’ll admit) getting reacquainted with that extra family member: the Xbox 360. I drove up to New York to visit Kim and Cara and go to their (the Stirling) Renaissance Festival. I was able to fly to Texas to be there for my
Bilbo Baggins
This is my Misterman, the sweetest dog in the whole wide world! friend’s son’s first birthday just as I had been there when he was born the year before. I went to my grandmother’s 90th birthday party. Another friend was awesome and took me to the beach for a weekend. I finally was able to give a wedding gift to another friend who wed last October. And I spent as much time as I could with my parents and my sister. The whole thing was capped off by opening weekend of the Maryland Renaissance Festival. It was great to see everyone and to hear that some of them read this blog. Aside from the lack of work which put me into a financial crunch, it was a good summer. Relaxing.
I was little surprised to find that during my time at home I actually missed China. There were days when I really could have gone for a dollar plate of dumplings, or some cheap but kick ass noodles. I missed the friends I made. But I take that as a good sign. It’s not worth doing something like this if you come out of it saying, “Whew, glad that’s over!”
Advertisement
Tot: 0.077s; Tpl: 0.025s; cc: 8; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0459s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb