A Stranger in a Strange...

We're back.  In case anyone missed it, we just spent 1 month in the good old U.S. of A.  I think we're glad to be back.  The girls, at any rate, have celebrated by waking up at 1:30am and throwing a party every night.  I can only assume that at bedtime, their bodies are in "nap" mode, so they sleep for a few hours and then are rarin' to go until their bodies said "bed" at about 5:00.  Anyway, here are some of my reflections and musings about, OK, let's say it, reverse culture shock.   My neighborhood has changed.  We took a walk at the Highlands Street Fair one of our first days there.  I felt like I didn't belong.  I felt like I was in suburbia.  Everywhere I looked were tanned women in strapless dresses with enormous sunglasses and cowboy hats pulling wagons or strollers with 2.5 children.  I am no longer a racial minority in my neighborhood, although I still somehow felt I was a cultural minority.  I should probably be rejoicing at the turnaround of my "inner-city" neighborhood, but it just felt weird.   As we walked up and down the Street Fair, the other thing that hit me was this:  I didn't see anyone I knew.  No one.  A big gathering of people in my home neighborhood, and there was no one I knew.  I began wishing that someone would recognize me, that someone would run up to me smiling and saying, "Dawn Kummer, whatever are you up to now?"  Someone that would make me feel like I was remembered.  Someone that would make me feel like my being there mattered.   To completely switch gears, there were some food issues.  Apparently, I now develop violent stomach cramps every time I eat hot dogs and chips.  This is a problem when one is in the U.S. around the 4th of July, and also when one is camping.  Then there was the ice issue.  I had never thought about it before, but the whole time we were there, every time Alina was served a drink with ice, she protested rather loudly and refused to drink it.  Tassia as well.  I began ordering things without ice for them, only to have that request occasionally forgotten.  I used to love ice in my drinks.  Now, I find it annoying to have to strain my drink through my teeth.   I don't remember the last time I ate so much peanut butter.  It was great!  (And, peanut butter cookies are on the agenda today at our house.)   We had a great time, mostly (see camping experience), and we're also glad to be back home.