Unpacking

Yup, that's right.  I am back on US soil, more specifically the rich fertile soil of Iowa.  And boy it feels good to be back, but it's the weirdest thing, being back.  As I was walking off the plane in the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, déjà vu hit me like a tidal wave:  it was the same gate.  Six and a half months ago I walked through the same gate at the airport in order to board my big plane heading for Chile.  I had no idea what was to come.  And then, six and a half months later, after all the experiences I had, after all the people I met, after all the things I learned, I was walking out of that same gate on my way home.  Déjà vu, for sure.  Being back in the US still didn't feel real at that point... Until I went into the bathroom, which was huge with automatic flushers and sinks and the whole nine yards.  Plus I didn't have to throw the toilet paper into a little trash can, I could throw it in the toilet.  Now that was reverse culture shock.  Haha.  Then I walk out of the bathroom, in a daze, and I see a water fountain.  I had not seen one water fountain in all six and a half months I was in South America, not one.  Of course, I took a big long gulp before I ran over to Starbs to inject myself with real (not instant) caffeine.  Next thing I know, I am walking out of the Cedar Rapids Airport with my mom and dad.  Whoa.  Seeing them was happiness.  Por fin, I'm home.  And in celebration of my homecoming, we went to Panera Bread, which happened to continue to feed into the whole feeling of déjà vu since Panera Bread happened to be my last meal before I left for Chile.


And now I'm home-home, in my house in Burlington, in my room where everything is exactly how I left it.  It's like I never left.  But I did.  On the one hand, the streets of Burlington are more or less how I remember them and my house still smells the same.  Not much has changed, thank goodness, but it's weird... For example, I was sitting on my bed just looking around my room and thinking, the last time I was here was in August when I was doing/thinking/feeling this way and now it's March and I'm doing/thinking/feeling something else, something different.  Oh, it's like some weird time warp; it's the oddest feeling.  It's like Chile never happened.  It's like I never went.  Multiple times in the last twenty-four hours I have found myself wondering if I dreamt it all up.  No, no, I couldn't have.  There are pictures and proof and I have more Facebook friends because of it.  Surely it happened.  Yes, it definitely happened.  But I'm back, uh weird.  


I gotta move on from this topic of weirdness and time warps... But in all seriousness, being abroad for so long and then coming home is such a strange dichotomy.  A part of me feels like nothing at home has changed but I have changed so much, but the other part of me says that everything has changed at home but I have stayed relatively the same.  But I'm not the same, I can't be.  I had this whole Chilean experience that transformed my worldview, that made minor tweaks in my life outlook, that gave me a greater appreciation for some things and popped the illusion I was holding of other things... I mean the list could go on.  I guess right now things will just have to be weird as I begin to unpack, literally and metaphorically, all that I brought back from South America.