Culture shock

Well, we're back in the good old US of A, the trip went better than expected. I have no pictures because A. who the heck has time to take pictures with a 10 week old and all of the crazy amounts of stuff that goes along with them and B. they no longer allow photography on airplanes and I'm a rule follower like you read about, so that means no pics. Anywho, Ambrose did great on the first stretch of the trip, sleeping 6 out of the 8 hours on the Tokyo flight. Once we hit Seattle John and I parted ways and it was Ambrose and I on our own. I carried him in a wrap the entire time (those in Oki know exactly what that looks like, the rest of you I'll see if I can get a pic) and it worked like a charm. I didn't have to take him out during security and I was hands free the entire time, however, people looked at me like I had my son in some kind of torture device...oh well. IT sure beats wrangling a screaming kid while trying not loose any of the items I was schlepping through the air port. I thought that the first leg of the trip would be the tough part for Ambrose, but like everything else about this kid, he never seems to be predictable..SO once we hit the states he started to fall apart. So from Washington to Utah he cried for about 30 minutes of the flight, and from Utah to South Dakota he cried for almost the entire thing. Greaaaat! Lets just say that when it was time to get off that flight every single person waited for me to get off first ( I kid you not). I will never give that "please don't sit by me lady with the baby look" to anyone ever again.



It feel great to be back home, but there are a few things that I'm getting used to, I guess you could call it "culture shock."

• The weather: in most parts of the world, it's summer, but not here in good ol South Dakota. Today the high is 46, yup 46 degrees Fahrenheit. It's the equivalent of an Okinawan winter...it's awful. My blood has thinned significantly and I'm FREEZING.


• My ID: no longer frantically looking for my ID prior to entering any store has taken some getting used to, but I've finally quit offering the Wal-MArt greeter proof of who I am.


• Fruit: the selection quality and price has prompted me to eat dangerously large amounts of fruit, it's awesome!


• speed limit: let's just say I'm in the slow lane a majority of the time. While driving I happened to notice I'm not surrounded by my "usual" driving company. I looked in front of me the other day and noticed an elderly lady driving ( and I wasn't even tailgating her), and then looked in my rear view mirror and saw a brand new driver with is hands at 10 and 2 (that's right isn't it?). And let's not even get into merging at these top speeds, let just say you don't want to be the person behind me.


• And while we're on the topic of driving, my car (well truck actually) looks like something that should be driving over cars at an arena while men in muscle T-shirts and hats are cheering it on, rather than something that is driving through a city. I've driven it a total of two times because a) I can't back it out of the garage, my dad has to B) I can't park the thing to save my life. (the truck isn't that big, it's a Toyota tundra, but compared to what I was driving in Oki, it's ginormous!)


• the glorious wonderful help: my family has been such a huge help! Ambrose begins to cry in the morning (promptly at 6:50 which soooo beats the 5:30 wake up call I used to get) and before I can even put my glasses on my face one of my wonderful family members is there to take him, feed him and change him. I can wake up on my own, grab a cup of coffee and just sit for a second...it's fantastic. It so make me wish we lived closer to home!

Needless to say, I feel like after having done that I can do anything!