Culture Shock

Hello Tallahassee! I have not been this sleep deprived in a very long time yet thanks to adrenaline I am pressing on, people. It is SO good to be in the U.S. of A. I love my life in Brasil but it is always so refreshing to be back with family, dear friends and familiar surroundings. Let me tell you though, it came at no small cost. The 26 hours it took to get here were some of the most miserable of my life. No joke...I am not even going to worry about sounding positive because it was horrific. I kept thinking "what was I thinking?" To make a very long story short (a 26 hour story, that is) my amazing child who awoke at 1am Monday morning to begin this journey decided to dedicate what energy she had to fighting sleep. If an award was ever given for fighting sleep she would have won hands down. She became so hyper and out of control for most of the trip...I have NEVER given so many empty threats in one breath like I did for 15 hours straight. Even though now I feel like the 26 hours of misery was worth it if you required me to go through it again in order to stay here I would have to think about it for a very long time. A very, very long time.

But don't feel sorry for me! Our first day here has come and gone and it was simply wonderful. I'm not really going through culture shock. I mean, we've only been gone for 8 months so I was mentally prepared for a lot of things. However I have had a few "whoa, what?" conversations today.

Converation #1) Mom was telling me some recent happenings with some friends and said (I quote) "she called and blessed her out" with a very negative tone in her voice. "She B.L.E.S.S.E.D. her out?" (said I) "Yes, and she was really upset" (said she) "wait mom, she B.L.E.S.S.E.D. her out and that was a bad thing?" (said I) "yeah" (said she) "kinda funny, huh?" Yes, it is funny...I've only been gone 8 months and I already feel like the English language has moved on without me. One more expression to add to the "expressions that don't make any sense" list. Sheesh, I'm so glad I won't ever have to learn English as a second language.

Conversation #2) We were in the van today and Courtney was telling me about a man they heard speak in the library. Courtney said (and I quote) "yeah, but instead of using Power Point he used this old machine thingie that went cachunk everytime a new picture came up." "It was a slide projector" my mom chimed in. That doesn't have much to do with cultural differences except that this technology inclined country of mine always surprises me in some way shortly after my arrival here. On furlough it was a lady in the bathroom stall next to me talking to her friend on the phone. I was very close to answering her "how are you?" before I realized that she was not interested in knowing how the stranger to her left was doing. Thank goodness.

So the one thing I always enjoy immensely in my home country is how cheap (C-H-E-A-P- cheap!) everything is. After spending 20 minutes in Big Lots I was ready to ask if we could spend the rest if the day purusing all of the aisles in that wonderful store. But we had a deadline to make because the Good Cents store brings out their new items at 10 & 2 everyday (the Goodwill store where they take everything that doesn't sell...mostly things that are way overpriced in the store that they then price for less than $1 at the Good Cents store). It is a wealthy-challenged shopaholic's dream store! You gotta be dedicated and you gotta be ready to dig for treasures. There are few things in this world that bring me as much pleasure as hitting the Good Cents store twice a day (thankfully I'm not that way by accident but inherited whatever strange gene my mom passed onto me who is just as enthusiastic as I am to make that trip across town twice a day!) And I got some really good treasures. If I didn't know that my wonderful hubby would read this at some point I'd list out a few things...but I don't want to bring any useless stress into his life if I don't have to (like why is my wife bringing back that junk with her?) Just think about it this way, honey...I didn't buy a vhs/dvd player/recorder for $65, or Thanksgiving decorations that were 75% off. Yes, just think about how wonderful that is!

Ok, my eyes are closing on their own without any help from me. I better wrap this up. Mom did tell me to mention our Bloggy Party that will be taking place at the Princesses house this Friday (I think it's Friday). How fun to not only have an immediate family and a missionary family but now I have a bloggy family. I'm really looking forward to partay! If you're near us here in Tally and a part of our bloggy world please join us. I don't really know what time or where the Princess lives but I'm sure she or Meg could help you out (even though I don't know where she lives I could tell you all about her beautiful home:-)

Good night, good people. Good night.