P.S.I have not finished posting about the Cambodia and Vietnam of my backpacking trip, the interesting characters that could the protagonist of any adventure travel novel, or my final conclusion about this year but while the beautiful re-entry conclusions are fresh and funny they come first.
I am back. I am H.O.M.E, I have to say it twice because I am still in disbelief that I won't wake up to the sound of roosters and screaming children. As I drive down the highway I still think there is going to be a motorcycle with a family of five weave past us at the red light. I still feel like I should the leathered, old man pushing his giant cart of cement bags up hill on the highway. It was so wierd being in my room with all my lotions still on my desk and more than three pairs of shoes to wear. My mascara was still in the bathroom drawer, and it was like have a whole new wardrobe as I rediscovered my closet. My sisters have had their way with her, but like a Thai lady boy prostitute, everything has been cleaned a return to its normal location in the corner.
So far my biggest reverse culture shock moments have come from the plethora of options. Everything fits, I can read everything, I can ask questions about what it is, is there another size, or alternate an order. I am overstimulated.There were so many options of salad dressings last night at the tex mex restaurant that I didn't get any because I couldn't make up my mind. The waitress looked at me and said are you sure? and I said " I think. Yes. Yes." (Double words in Thai is used in place of very. For example slow slow would be very slow). Fred shook his head knowing there are weeks of re-socialization to come.
I am also not used to all the small talk, this may be a southern thing or a I am in a country where they speak English, as I go shopping everyone wants to know how I am. One person asked "are you having a great day today?" Have service workers always been so ambitious about making sure I feel like I just bought a puppy or is that the new sales tactic in this "New Economy" as the KIA ad says.
I went shopping, and I was so excited to buy boots and tailored tops. I feel like my year wearing garden picking skirts, as the weather year round was 80-110, has made me allergic to anything that resembles a flowy bohemian top. Unfortunately, some of that look is in especially in short dresses and brown boots. Maybe I will eventually give in but now every time my mom held up a multiprint top with more than three colors I twitched a little.
Our Forever 21 has tripled in size and added a second floor. The myriad of options, the sequence tights, and the bohemian, long skirts made my only use of the store as a walk-though to something less intimidating. I am still not doing well with all the options. I am so used to three options in Big-C, the Thai version of a walmart that catered to the 5 Asian girls above a size 0 and taller than 5'3'', only because that is in the the only shirt that fits my American broad shoulders, non-Asian chest size (even my 15 year old sister has a bigger chest), and hips bigger than a bed side lamp.
At the end of the day shopping was fun again, but a underlining sense of guilt couldn't be helped. After a year of convincing my students, Cambodia paraplegic beggars, Indonesia toothless mothers with three sleeping babies in her arms, the gaping, cratered skull Thai outside the Silom subway stop in Bangkok that I was not a wealthy farang, foreigner, I sure felt very,very privileged. In Thailand I learned how blessed I was to have an amazing opportunity to completely alter my perspective of humanity, but in Kentucky I am reminded how blessed I am to have such wonderful friends and family. I am not meant to be 9,000 miles away from this wonderful place.
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