RE-ENTRY…
I wasn’t expecting my reaction last night when I arrived at the Salt Lake International Airport. Because I’ve been back in the United States since Dec. 31, I thought I had already felt the exhilaration of being “home” when I got tears in my eyes as I saw Oahu, Hawaii for the first time out my plane window and realized I would shortly be back on American soil. I’ve been back in the USA for 18 days, for heavens sake! Nonetheless, last night, as our plane was about to land, the flight attendant was giving de-boarding instructions. One of the things she said was, “…And if you are returning home to Salt Lake, ‘Welcome Home!’” I don’t know why that struck me so, but this time, as hard as I was trying to fight them back, tears actually rolled out of my eyes onto my cheeks. And to top it all off, at that moment, I glanced out the window just in time to see a huge American flag painted on the side of the Delta Airlines office building. That just threw me over the edge!
I’M ACTUALLY HOME!!!!! Even now, that’s bringing tears to my eyes just to say it. I’m home safe and sound. I’m home on American soil. I’m home where my family and friends are (not that I didn’t have family and friends on my trip). I’m home where I have my own little home and car and everything that goes along with that. I’m home where I know what to expect from things around me (that’s a hard one to explain to you though). I’m home where I can get mail again – I actually have an address. I’m home where I don’t have to worry about certain diseases. I’m home where things are clean and taken care of. I’m home where everyone speaks English and we can all understand what each other is saying (except maybe at Carl’s Jr.’s hamburgers where no one seems to understand my order given in English – LOL).
There were a lot of little things that happened last night that told me I’d been away longer than I realized… Tayler picked me up at the airport in my Toyota Avalon. It’s been sitting in my garage since the middle of August. It’s almost like I’ve forgotten how my car works! I couldn’t even figure out some of the simple things in it. Tayler had figured out how to turn on my GPS, but I couldn’t figure out how to turn it off, re-set the clock, turn on the interior light, get back to the main screen on my menu in my dashboard, turn on/off the heated seats. I felt so awkward in my car I’ve driven for five years! Luckily, I wasn’t the one driving, or I’m sure there would have been more. That’s still to come today, I’m guessing.
When we arrived home, I was greeted with the front of my house decorated with mylar balloons, the words “Welcome Home” in the living room window, a sign on the grass that said, “Kadi, Welcome Home You Globe Trotter You! Hakuna Matata”. Then we walked into a lighted living room, kitchen, and dining room. There were fresh flowers and my favorite candy bars – Snickers and Baby Ruths – scattered around the vase with a note from Bruce and Tara (they’ve been taking care of my house while I was gone. There was fresh fruit, bread, milk, a box of Cream of Wheat, and eggs that Tara had picked up for us. ). [I have since learned that the flowers and food were from Tara, and the candy, balloons, and signs were from Diane – I kind of thought that was from her.] My home was warm, clean, and inviting. I even had hot, clean running water. There were more mylar balloons in the living room. They even put fresh flowers on the end table by my bed. What sweet gestures! I feel very loved and grateful to be here!
Tayler and I had a few “re-entry” moments, too. He’s been teaching in South Korea since the end of February, so he’s been away even longer than I have, but he’s been back in the USA for nearly a week. By the time we ran an errand for Tayler and stopped by my brother’s house to pick up all of both of our mail that had been forwarded to his house, we didn’t arrive home until nearly 10:00 PM. Tayler got out of the car to punch in the security code for the garage door when I just pushed the garage door button in my car. We both laughed realizing he didn’t need to get out of the car to get into the garage. He’d forgotten!
We were both hungry, but because it was so late, we didn’t want to eat much. We decided to have a piece of toast – just because we could. Neither of us has had a toaster for all these months. We’ve had to make our toast in a frying pan, which leaves something to be desired. Next, we went downstairs to see what I had in my food storage that we could eat. I settled on a bowl of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup and a glass of milk. He just had an apple with his toast and milk. Even that struck me – I could just walk downstairs and find food that I am familiar with, and heat it in a microwave oven (another thing I’ve been without most of this trip).
When he was finished eating, Tayler went over to the sink to wash his dishes by hand. All of a sudden, he realized that I had a dishwasher, and he could simply rinse the dishes and put them in it to be washed. He’s had to wash all his dishes by hand for so long, he’d forgotten there was such a thing as a dishwasher. I might have done the same thing had I not had access to a one in Hawaii and Oakland before I arrived home.
Everywhere I went in my house was like a new experience for me. I was struck at how much light I have and how easily I can see in my home. Without exception, even in the American cities I’ve been in, my home is lighter. I LOVE light! It felt so good to be able to see everything so easily even in the night! I loved the feel of carpet under my feet, as opposed to cold tile. My home felt clean and orderly to me. My neighbor, who has a heating and plumbing company, had come over on Sunday and turned on all my interior water again for me and turned up my heater. So I had clean hot and cold running water, and a warm house. It felt so cozy. Just looking around my home at the things I had in it was like discovering it all over again. I’d almost forgotten what it all looked like. Last night as I climbed into my own little bed in my own little bedroom, I was once again struck with how grateful I was to be home. I turned on my electric warming blanket on my bed, crawled under the covers, and drifted off to sleep. (I hope that no one I’ve stayed with takes any of this personally, but it’s just so nice to be in my own little house with my own stuff and know that I no longer have to live out of suitcases, etc.)
This morning, I opened my bedroom window blinds and saw the elementary school that’s behind my house. I’d even forgotten it was there! Then, I saw the kids and realized that school is in session. Wow! I’m so out of touch with the realities of my life here. It’s like someone has taken an eraser and simply erased everything that my life was before August 16, 2011! Apparently, Salt Lake has had NO snow this winter. I mean NOOOOOO snow!!! The mountains are bare. This time of year we normally have about 150 inches of snow in the mountains. When I looked out my window, I saw basically bare mountains and a tiny skiff of snow in my backyard. That’s it! This is only the second time I’ve even seen snow since last April! The first time was the night before Christmas Eve at Tayler and Meghan’s in South Korea. I’m not used to that! (Believe me when I say I’m not really missing the snow with it’s cold, slushy, icy, messy, salty roads, etc., but I do know how much Utah depends on snow covered mountains in the winter to provide our desert climate with water in the summer. Luckily, we’ve had a couple of really heavy water years the previous two winters, so our reservoirs and lakes are still pretty full. Nonetheless, if this keeps up throughout the winter, I’m guessing we’ll have to be very careful with our water consumption in the summer.)
I guess I need to go deal with my “new” life here… Unpacking, laundry, buying groceries, getting a new battery for my car (apparently a light got left on inside sometime after I left, and the battery is basically dead now), figuring out how to get my landline phone, internet, and cable turned back on, going through five months of mail, etc., etc. I have a feeling my re-entry isn’t quite over yet. We’ll see.
IT’S NICE TO BE HOME! I’ll write again soon.
Kadi
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