America, You Are Beautiful!

I am here! I am in California! Finally in my home state! And while I miss my husband terribly as he flies away for work in Portugal, I am thrilled to be back in the USA!

First of all, people talk to you here. OK, it’s small talk, but it’s friendly, fun and I LOVE the fact that people don’t think I’m a freak for striking up a conversation with random strangers. I talked to the customs official as he swiped my passport. Airport security cracked jokes with me, fellow travelers chatted about the oversold plane, and I struck up an on flight friendship with the two ladies sitting next to me on the plane. I even shared CHEESE with one of them! The ongoing friendly banter is something that doesn’t happen in Germany and it’s refreshing to come home to! Thank you, America, for welcoming me home with a smile, open arms and a friendly conversation. I have missed you tremendously!

My mom and sister met met me at the airport with a sign that somehow misspelled both my married name AND my maiden name, and I laughed and loved every minute of it. On the way to mom’s house we dropped my sister off at her place in the Mission district of San Fransisco, where we stopped for authentic Mexican tacos, because they have that kind of thing here. You know, the kind where the meat is fried up in something that looks like a steel drum on a cart, where they heat the mini tortillas in the middle and have incredible green spicy salsa and a vat of cilantro if you desire it? Oh yeah, I was in heaven!!

My first day back was wonderful. First of all, let me discuss my outfit. I wore jeans, a T-shirt, one of those long light sweaters, and a pair of flip flops. Absolutely unfathomable this time of the year in Germany, and such a comfortable uniform to slide back into now that I am here. After my pointing out the flip flops and being overly excited about my clothing choices, mom and I went to lunch at the local taco shop. (I just can’t get enough of the stuff.) We then checked out the spring sale at Old Navy, (my nephew calls it Old Gravy) and went to Macy’s to see if there was any free gift with purchase we had to have at the makeup counters. While there were no free gifts available, I did happen to have a brief discussion about the differing world wide makeup recycling programs at the MAC counter as I purchased my new eyeshadow.

And then we went to that Mecca we all call Target. Now, they think they do things big in Germany, and I giggle because for Germany it is big. But walking through I don’t know how many acres of everything you could ever need and more was a slice of heaven. I had to look at everything, from toys to camping gear, tires to sports bras. I don’t think it has ever felt so good to spend money. (Sorry, sweetheart.)

Please don’t mis-understand me here. I love living abroad. I love the international flair my life has taken on. I love that I get to experience life in a new and different way that isn’t so, well, excessive. But coming home is like letting go. You don’t have to struggle with language. You don’t have to struggle to find what you need, only to discover after some serious frustration that it doesn’t exist in the form you expect it to. People don’t mis-interpret the cultural and contextual subtleties of language. And I can just be me; an American. One of those freaky Californian types everyone loves to make fun of. But see, people here GET it.

So, the following days have been filled with avocados, the best bacon on earth, outlet stores, Starbucks (which is everywhere and really not the best coffee) The Price is Right, (not as good now with Drew Carey, but I’m a total Barker fan) Saturday Night Live and plenty of sunshine.

It’s good to be home!