A week later...

It is hard to believe that I have been in my house, driving on familiar roads, and speaking English for the past week. It's such a kick to walk into a room and have several people do a double take because they didn't know I was back in the US yet. It is fun to see everyone and hear what has transpired in people's lives over the past five months.

But, today, perhaps in part because I slept horribly last night -- just when I thought the jet lag was beginning to balance itself out -- the 'reverse culture shock' started settling in. Often when you travel you anticipate being shocked or not used to certain traditions. When you come back home, everything is supposed to be golden... right?

For me, it's not that my bubble bursts necessarily, it's just that I am annoyed when I hear people complaining about things around them. Don't they understand what they have to be grateful for? And, I am aggravated with the pace of our culture, and, please don't point out the fact that I flew in the day before I started back at my seminary classes. I'd much rather burrow in my dillusion of our culture than be convicted about poor choices that I have made! :)

I get emails from friends in Ukraine and look at pictures and miss them. I remind myself that the first couple of weeks were hard in Ukraine because I missed everyone in the states. Now, it's reversed. It doesn't seem fair tonight that my heart is in two places. I told my niece this weekend that some people go and visit another country and come back saying, that was nice, God used it to teach me some lessons and now I'm going to live my life here. I also told her that I am not one of these people. That from the very first time that I visited Ukraine, that God made them a special people to me. I will always be torn between two countries.