Thoughts on 6 Weeks Back

It's now been about 6 weeks since we arrived back in the US! We expected there would be cultural readjustments or "reverse culture shock", although to be honest it's been tougher than we'd expected. Very frequently in the back of our minds we compare South Africa to the US (and vice versa), and sometimes feel funny when something here now feels unfamiliar or distasteful. But then there are a lot of simply funny moments, too.

Here's a taste of some thoughts and observations on American life and the readjustment these past weeks:

• Crossing the street: "Oh no! Which way do we look? Where are the cars coming from?! Okay okay, let's just GO." (US drive on the right. SA drive on the left.)
• Neighborhood security: there are no big walls in front of houses or burglar bars on the windows or electrified wires. People leave their car windows down when they park on the street! Some people even leave their houses unlocked when they go out!! (What a difference compared to Cape Town and everyone's hyper-sensitivity to safety and protection from crime.)
• Making telephone calls from one house to another: "Wait how expensive is this going to be? You mean I can make this phone call for free?" (SA landlines are costly and people avoid making calls.)
• People in the US seem to require much wider or bigger 'personal space' when standing in line or passing each other on the street or shop aisle. Americans will even give somewhat apologetic or sheepish looks and say, "Excuse me" as they pass by you in the grocery store, even when it doesn't require you to budge an inch. Sometimes I roll my eyes and think "Good grief man you're not even close to me."
• The cars are so big!! The first week or so that we had our Toyota Rav4 we thought, "Wow this is so spacious!" After a time of driving around on the roads here, now we're thinking, "Gosh this car is small." But we're so glad we have this car. Baby Beluga Tazz the Zippy.
• Grocery stores: so huge! Open 24 hours a day! (Why?!!) So many options! So much junk food! So expensive! Such exuberant and deceptive marketing on the packaging! ... well actually Jim is very excited about all the cereal options we now have again. And I love the bulk aisle.
• More on food: too many thoughts to put in one entry BUT one quick observation is how much Fast Food there is. There are so many options and chains. Just driving around town or on the highway there are innumerable McDonalds and Starbucks, and they are so tempting! No wonder it's easy to indulge (and thus indulge your waistline).
• Internet access: It's everywhere (esp. wireless) and it's fast. And you can download as much information as you want at no extra cost. People even seem to assume that everyone else has access at any time, just like they assume that everyone has a cell phone. (In SA the internet access is about 10 years behind - slower, more expensive and the user pays for the amount he/she downloads and uses.)
• Being close to family: wow we're actually in the same time zone as some of our family. And we can talk on the phone! And make plans to see each other sometime later this year or drive up for the weekend. I guess we hadn't even realised what we'd been missing - and it's a privilege to be near once again.