Home
If I had to make my decision today, I'd say we'd be moving home in June (or July, depending on if we travel for a few weeks first or not). I love Indonesia, I love my students and my house and most of our coworkers. A select few make home sound good-mostly because it would leave these fine individuals 12 time zones away-a good distance, as we haven't yet developed lunar colonies. But there are annoying, bossy, arrogant know-it-all arseheads everywhere in the world, so that's not a reason to not stay. No, I'm happy here. I'm not tired of being here...I just think I'm tired of NOT being home.
Today we didn't have school because it's Indonesia's Independence Day. Dirgahayu Republik Indonesia, as they say, which basically means "long live the Republic of Indonesia." We're flying a red and white Indonesian flag our driver helped us buy, and he also tied a little flag to the antenna of our car. Tomorrow we have a flag ceremony outside at school, then a day of games. Whoo-hoo. The flag ceremony is held outside in direct sunlight because it's ALWAYS held outside so of course we mustn't do it any other way, despite the fact that we'll lose a good 6-10 students after the first 45 minutes. Happens every time, kids start passing out. One would think the fact that we have to have extra nurses on duty just to catch the fainters would suggest that perhaps we should either move the ceremony inside or at least in the shade, but oh well.
Anyway, we slept in today and then sat around being lazy. Later in the afternoon we went to a friend's house for a little get-together. We were all sitting around chatting, and we got on the subject of some of our friends who'd moved back to the US just this last June. We all miss them a lot (especially those of us who have to deal with said friends' replacements...ack) and so we were all chatting about how they were doing after having moved back. We got on the topic of reverse culture shock--what happens when you move back to your home country. Some of our friends had lived in Malaysia for two years a long time ago, and they were saying it was so hard to go back.
They said going back was hard mostly because they didn't fit anywhere anymore. Everyone got used to them being gone so far away, so they really didn't belong anywhere. Friends and even family just got used to them being gone and so it was weird for everyone when they got back and had to try to adjust to home again.
Goody.
So, mostly because I like to worry and previously didn't have anything else to worry about today, now I'm sitting on my couch sobbing my face off because I'm afraid I don't really belong anywhere anymore. Sometimes I wonder why we left in the first place. We didn't leave because we wanted to escape anything-we were happy at home! We had our dog and our little house and our comfortable little life. Why the heck did we think it was such a good idea to just leave it all?
I know. Experience. Opportunity. We've seen and done some really cool things here. We've saved money and Travis has gotten to start working at getting his teaching degree. We rescued a sad, tiny starving little kitten and gave him a good home...and when we move home the spoiled little beastie is coming with us. He even has a kitty passport with all his immunization stamps and records from the vet.
Anyway, sometimes I do wonder-what have we given up by gaining all this? Will we be able to adjust fairly well when we get home or will it be as hard as it was when we moved here? Ack. When we come back, we'll still be the same Erin and Travis, I promise! Sure, we'll have gained some world experience and knowedge, along with teak furniture and a spastic black cat, but we'll still be us. And sure, at first we might be a little too excited about things like watching leaves on trees change for fall, the first snowfall of the season and being able to buy things like Nacho Cheese Doritos at the store for less than $8 a bag, but...we're still ourselves. Please don't forget to leave a little room for us when we get back!
Today we didn't have school because it's Indonesia's Independence Day. Dirgahayu Republik Indonesia, as they say, which basically means "long live the Republic of Indonesia." We're flying a red and white Indonesian flag our driver helped us buy, and he also tied a little flag to the antenna of our car. Tomorrow we have a flag ceremony outside at school, then a day of games. Whoo-hoo. The flag ceremony is held outside in direct sunlight because it's ALWAYS held outside so of course we mustn't do it any other way, despite the fact that we'll lose a good 6-10 students after the first 45 minutes. Happens every time, kids start passing out. One would think the fact that we have to have extra nurses on duty just to catch the fainters would suggest that perhaps we should either move the ceremony inside or at least in the shade, but oh well.
Anyway, we slept in today and then sat around being lazy. Later in the afternoon we went to a friend's house for a little get-together. We were all sitting around chatting, and we got on the subject of some of our friends who'd moved back to the US just this last June. We all miss them a lot (especially those of us who have to deal with said friends' replacements...ack) and so we were all chatting about how they were doing after having moved back. We got on the topic of reverse culture shock--what happens when you move back to your home country. Some of our friends had lived in Malaysia for two years a long time ago, and they were saying it was so hard to go back.
They said going back was hard mostly because they didn't fit anywhere anymore. Everyone got used to them being gone so far away, so they really didn't belong anywhere. Friends and even family just got used to them being gone and so it was weird for everyone when they got back and had to try to adjust to home again.
Goody.
So, mostly because I like to worry and previously didn't have anything else to worry about today, now I'm sitting on my couch sobbing my face off because I'm afraid I don't really belong anywhere anymore. Sometimes I wonder why we left in the first place. We didn't leave because we wanted to escape anything-we were happy at home! We had our dog and our little house and our comfortable little life. Why the heck did we think it was such a good idea to just leave it all?
I know. Experience. Opportunity. We've seen and done some really cool things here. We've saved money and Travis has gotten to start working at getting his teaching degree. We rescued a sad, tiny starving little kitten and gave him a good home...and when we move home the spoiled little beastie is coming with us. He even has a kitty passport with all his immunization stamps and records from the vet.
Anyway, sometimes I do wonder-what have we given up by gaining all this? Will we be able to adjust fairly well when we get home or will it be as hard as it was when we moved here? Ack. When we come back, we'll still be the same Erin and Travis, I promise! Sure, we'll have gained some world experience and knowedge, along with teak furniture and a spastic black cat, but we'll still be us. And sure, at first we might be a little too excited about things like watching leaves on trees change for fall, the first snowfall of the season and being able to buy things like Nacho Cheese Doritos at the store for less than $8 a bag, but...we're still ourselves. Please don't forget to leave a little room for us when we get back!
posted by Erin @ 6:10 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home