A lil bit of my world

Well I'm back in Kansas, and it feels really weird. Travis and I had fun in Quito doing some very rapid sight-seeing, and then we headed out extra early yesterday morning. I don't feel like I was mentalized to leave yet; being in the airport was more or less depressing.

I've already noticed funny little things that have surprised me, things I wasn't really expecting. Water fountains, flushing toilet paper instead of throwing it away, being able to call phone numbers from my cell phone, using tap water without a second thought, etc... such daily things that had gone unnoticed that have caught me off guard. And of course the fact that the public language is now English-- I actually wasn't expecting much difficulty with the language transition because I've spoken a lot of English with U.S. friends the last couple months, but it was still weird in the airport. Now it's the majority that I'm supposed to speak English with, instead of the minority, and I kept forgetting. The quantity of white adults was weird for me as well, plus as soon as you hit U.S. soil the people get bigger. I noticed the same thing when I came back from Spain, just kinda funny. Maybe one of the strangest things is something Ann mentioned once that I hadn't really thought about. She said she thought it would be strange to go back to the States where we have to worry about social norms b/c she hadn't had to at all in Ecuador. I wasn't quite sure what she meant, but I realized it was true yesterday. At USFQ, the students are mostly very wealthy with all their designer clothes and such, but they're used to the U.S. students, who are in general much less fashion conscious. Plus we all only brought a certain amount of clothing and don't have an income to go shopping much, so there was just no expectation that we were going to conform to the univerisity's appearance standards. Plus none of the kids in my group were of Latin descent, so we're not going to look like them anyway.

As far a social norms, we weren't from there, so people expected us to act somewhat differently, and among the girls I was friends with, U.S. social norms were not really important either:). Quite a liberating experience... something I realized most when I hit the Chicago airport, surrounded by Americans again, and could almost feel my perceptions of myself changing, as if suddenly I really pertained to my environment again and had to worry about what that implies. At the same time, I didn't really feel like I belonged grouped together with everyone else, a classic reverse culture shock "fish out of water" or "between two worlds" sensation. I was very grateful for the couple I sat next to on my Miami-Chicago flight, a very typical looking American pair, who once I started talking to I realized had a lot in common with me. They're from Michigan so actually knew what Goshen College was, and the man is a pediatrician who has done multiple medical missions in the Dominican Republic (where he often crosses paths with Goshen's SST groups), Africa, and Romania. He has colleagues that work in Ecuador, as well as knowledge about and interest in South America. I guess it made me feel a little better to know that there are people in this environment that will be able to relate to my experiences. I already feel like my potential for reverse culture shock is higher this time than when I came back from Spain, which I find odd since my Spanish experience was more immersive, much longer, and more different because it was my first time away from home. Maybe it's because I don't have a job yet so I have nothing concrete to look forward to that will keep me busy, and the idea of long unoccupied hours in Hutch is not too appealing.

I have plenty to do the next couple days, and then it's off to Texas to see friends (it'll be great to see Abby and re-connect with a friend from Ecuador so soon already), and I'm going to go right now and apply for some jobs-- which means driving!! That's definitely something I've looked forward to. Hope everyone's having a great start to her/his summer **