the transition seems to be much easier than i anticipated, though there were some funny things that unexpectedly caught my attention…
+i’ve been used to tuning everything out in hindi and perking my ears when i heard a familiar english conversation. suddenly being able to understand everything around me is exhausting me!
+wedding rings, we didn’t have them in india.
+starbucks…i think there were 29 in chicago’s airport.
+women wear jeans and their shirts don’t always cover their backsides. in fact, they don’t really cover much at all.
+men are no longer smaller than i am, but big and tall. did i mention big?
+i can flush toilet paper now. i keep forgetting.
+i no longer have to plan ahead for my showers to heat up the water. it is always instantly ready to pour out of the faucet piping hot.
+i tried to watch tv on one of my way-too-early-to-be-up-time zone-adjusting mornings and i couldn’t figure it out. technology is way complicated.
+tap water is safe to not only cook with, but also to drink.
+ice cubes…how i’ve missed you!
+i have yet to use the microwave. i keep forgetting about it.
+my closet holds more than 5 outfits and shoes i didn’t remember having. my sisters should have raided it before i returned as i probably wouldn’t have known.

i’ve also discovered a weird phenomena…people who have been reading this website, have been connected to me for the past year. it’s as if, to them, i haven’t been gone a year, but they’ve been journeying with me. although i greatly appreciate this interest and their enjoyment of the adventure, i, on the other hand, often have no idea what has gone on in their lives. the internet really is a bizarre thing. it seems my catching-up time has been spent more hearing of their happenings and less of telling mine. no worries, though. i don’t know yet what i would say anyways.

i’ve been home in kansas only a week now, but in a strange way which i cannot yet understand, it feels as if i never left. i know, you’re thinking. how can that be? i honestly don’t know. i dropped my luggage in my room and looked around. it looks just as i left it. my usual walk around the neighborhood proves the same truth. not much really changed. i hop in the car to meet a friend for wine and hummus, driving the same roads which took me to work every day. i roll the window down and turn the music up. my arm finds its way out of my window and assumes its natural position of dancing with the wind. i haven’t put my arm out of a moving vehicle in a year for fear of losing it. it’s just as wonderful as i remembered it. i sit here, typing at my wooden desk and upon my old studio chair, thinking… was this past year a dream? i glance up to the calender on the wall…
august 2006 still reads across its pages.
hmmm…. i guess it really happened.