one week in America

I almost used a line from the over-played BareNakedLadies song...but I declined that opportunity.

It's been five days since we returned to the USA. And while I haven't exactly done a lot of things, I do have a few reflections.

1. I really love not having to squeegee my bathroom floor after taking a shower.

2. I love drinking cold water right out of the tap even in the middle of a 100-degree afternoon.

3. I love the way people drive between the lines on the road.

4. I love that there isn't any garbage on the ground (okay, at least there's not a lot of garbage on the ground).

5. I LOVE the grass and trees and clean air!!

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1. I think those stores everywhere are absolutely humongous. I went to the mall the other day and across the street was a complex of BestBuy, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Toys R Us. Those stores were so big that "big box store" didn't even begin to describe them. I thought I was in a Super Mario Brothers game.

2. I went into a Publix for a sandwich and I only went on ONE AISLE in the store and found that I wanted every single thing I saw. There are all kinds of new products that I wanted to try--plus I was starving--and I thought I might die if I couldn't have the SmartStart cereal bars, the powdered-sugar donuts in a bag, the weight-watchers snack cakes, five different kinds of juice, the mixed berries already washed in a container, a salad, and five packs of cheese.

3. I went shopping for some interview-worthy clothes (I'm going to a weekend-long church visit in two weeks and didn't really bring home any clothes like that...or really many clothes at all) and found myself aimlessly wandering huge stores wondering what to do with myself. I ended up checking out twice at a department store because I just assumed that I only wanted the one thing I tried on...and then I found myself in a different quadrant of the same floor of the store, trying on more things. oy!

4. It's incredible to go places and have people be friendly--in my language. It's like being myself again. At the same time, though, I have actually found myself unable to understand people sometimes , I think because I don't expect to be able to understand everything around me. Also, I do miss Arabic. Jason and I are still speaking to each other in Arabic sometimes. It's nice.

5. It's strange to get emails back right away. I sent an email the other day and within half an hour had several responses. I was so shocked, because all year I've been 7 or 8 or 10 hours ahead of most people on my email list! I was like "why are they online in the middle of the night? oh...they're not, it's 11am." duh. Things happen much faster here. I'm glad of that, but it's also a little overwhelming.

Those are the thoughts for today. I should be working on a sermon for my CPM on Jeremiah 7. I'm off to do that. ttfn!