From THERE to HERE...WHERE is that?

No one can ever tell you exactly how you are going to react when you transition back to your home country after being gone for a while.  I mean, people told us that we would have adjustments, some easier some difficult.  So, we knew that, but we also knew we would not have a whole lot of time to mentally process this before jumping right in to interviews and intense conversations about our futures, call to missions and our lives in general.  I (Kim) was a little nervous how this culture shock may present itself.  Not having time to talk through things very much caused some of the stress of transition to come out in the middle of the interviews we had yesterday.  I didn't think I would really be emotional about anything.  But, I had 2 different times when I was overcome by missing Ecuador when explaining it to our interviewers.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not ashamed of my emotions, especially when they aren't really something I can control.  But it just made me realize we need to rest and process a little bit before our next interviews next week.  For Joel, the analytical one, seems to be struggling a little with being here in the States, when the place God has called us is Ecuador.  Being a driven, focused person, it's almost like it's a step back after we have made so much progress so far in Ecuador.

I'm sure we will continue to encounter different areas of culture shock.  Some things we've realized so far...

We can flush toilet paper
We can drink the water out of the faucet
The choices at restaurants and grocery stores is a bit overwhelming
We get GIANT glasses for drinks AND free refills
We can basically watch any sporting event we want-INCLUDING OHIO STATE FOOTBALL!
We were pleasantly surprised to experience a church business meeting in the States and realize it 
                                    was a lot like business in Ecuador.
Simeon WILL actually wear a coat, mainly because it means he's going to the park
Simeon is probably going to transition MUCH easier than us
Spending so much money on a meal out is incredible considering we can all eat for under $10 in 
                                     Ecuador.
Enjoying a big glass of milk that doesn't have a different taste than we're used to
Adjusting to the fact that when we're out of the house, we don't have to speak Spanish.  We have 
                                  already made the mistake of speaking to random people in Spanish and have
                                  gotten some funny looks.

More to come...