reverse culture-shock… or lack there of
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.
June 19th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
A belated welcome home. Jill! Thought I’d let you decompress a week or so and see what you were saying about it in your blog.
It is easier for you to return because you were an adult going over to India. India and Mussoorie have deepened you…but you are returning before being too deeply changed. As an adolescent who had spent most of his life there…it was a real wrench for me.
You have a beautiful way of expressing your ideas about your experience of the Christian “walk” or “journey”. I find them uplifting and inspiring, two words that are often overused.
So…you’re back in Kansas, just about middle America as you can be. But, you have visions of the hill people of Garwhal, the majestic peaks of the Himalayas, and every now and then you will be reminded of that great experience by some triggering event, whether it’s a cup of tea, or the scent of mock orange blooms next Spring, or the whispering of the wind in a pine or deodar grove.
Continue being your exulting self and know that you are blessing one way or another to all you encounter.