Home again, home again...

So, the overnight flight was less than fun, and I filled out my US customs form all in Spanish - oops! (then was grilled by the man working in the Atlanta airport at 6 a.m.), but I'm back home safe and sound. My time in Ecuador and Peru was good.

It's also good to be home. I like it here. I love how everything looks and smells after I've been away for a month and return. It's neat to be able take in my apt. and neighborhood w/ new eyes. Right now I'm so aware of the details that during day to day living get overlooked.

The ironic part of my return is that it's scorching hot here in NY state- mid 90s, I think. I left South America wearing slacks, socks, two shirts and a light coat. I think I barely sweat my whole time away. It just wasn't hot. Often times the altitude cooled things and it's not their summer now. I must admit, that though it has been a rather muggy couple of days, I'm glad for the summer feel of this weather.

I have been taking cold showers now by choice. But it feels luxurious to have the hot shower option always available. :) I'm still getting used to throwing toilet paper in the toilet bowl, instead of the trash can beside it. It will be awhile before I leave home w/o my personal supply of water, hand sanitizer and tissues with me. As I drove my car home from the airport, I actually thought about getting a map to check how may blocks it would take me to walk to Wegmans (grocery store on my street) and back. (This is the way I functioned for the month - anywhere I wanted to go, required checking a map and planning the walking time.)

My life seems so comfy. It doesn't feel strange to be back. Feels like I was only away for a short while. This is good b/c I don't have much time to transition into work mode. Our ESL summer school starts on Monday.

Okay, I'm off to watch Grey's Anatomy in Spanish now. I found a seven disc set for sale in Quito - oh happy day! They look pretty legit. No, not really. They were very cheap and I purchased them w/ the excuse of needing to keep up on my Spanish. This is my first ever t.v. show. You know, where you have a show that you watch each week and care about. Ya, my first one. I think it's a great program. Funny and interesting w/ some quality themes and life lessons woven in there too.

p.s. this was a challenge to type, b/c I had gotten so used to the keyboards in S. America. all the punctuation marks are in different locations and some of the letters are in different spots to accomodate a few additional letters in the Spanish alphabet. strange to think that i'll have to spend sometime re-teaching my fingers how to type in N. America.