Saturday, June 20, 2009

Uuuuuhhhhhh...
It's been quite a couple of weeks. I flew out of Zambia last monday morning, quickly arrived in Joburg and then proceeded to sit for like 10 hours whilst waiting for my overnight flight to Frankfurt. The next morning I arrived in Germany and after a mercifully brief layover I was in the air bound for America. At approx 12:30 local time I touched down. Perhaps my life has involved a 36 hour period that felt longer, but I can't remember one. But,... worth it. Worth it to see and hug my parents for the first time since last February. As we headed towards food my brother called and told me to make my parents take me to a barbecque restaurant where they served a hamburger topped with bbq pulled pork. (!)
The first week was pretty much all about the wedding. After a day to rest on Thurs we headed to Indiana. The next three days were kind of a blur. I saw a ton of people, many of which I had not seen in years, for what seemed like not nearly enough time. The wedding was great. The ceremony went really well, I didn't flub any of my best man duties. I'm not really sure what to say about it. It's hard to sum up everything that comes with a brother's wedding day, but at the end of it I was exhausted but extremely happy that I was able to be there.
After staying an extra day to take my grandparents out to dinner for their 50th, we headed back to MD on monday. It's been pretty relaxed since then. Other than an overnight trip to Ocean City, MD on Thurs/Fri I've just kind of been a bum, watching lots of ESPN, catching upon a year's worth of missed music, and eating. Lots of Eating. It's disgusting. Tomorrow evening I head back, landing back in Zam on Tues night.
I'm trying to process the last 12 days and explain them here, but I'm finding it quite difficult. I've certainly enjoyed my time here, but it's definitely strange. After the wedding a friend asked me if, coming back here after 15 months abroad, my perception of America has changed. Honestly I don't know how it could stay the same. I'm not talking about foreign policy or anything like that, though being out of the country makes you examine what effect American policies have on the rest of the world, and its usually pretty significant. I'm just talking about American culture. I had forgotten that grocery stores here have EVERYTHING or that there's an all you can eat buffet on like every corner or what it's really like to go to a major american tourist destination. I've spent the last 15 months trying to get to the point where living in Zambia feels something like normal, and now America feels less than normal.
So that's that, I think. Sorry if that didn't make much sense. I've had a great time here, I'm glad I came, but I'm not sorry I have to leave again. To all my friends in IL who I didn't get to see, I'm sorry, my tour managers kept a tight schedule and I couldn't really escape, but I'll see you guys definitely next year.

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