Wrapping Things Up
Well I have been back in the United States now for some 10 days and I am just beginning to shake off some of the effects of reverse culture shock. The first few days were a little difficult, what with the wonders of drinking water straight out of the tap and toilets strong enough to flush down toilet paper. Also the clean air and green grass of New Hampshire have never felt so clean to me. I can wear my contacts again, after five months of eye irritation from pollution and smoke.
But it's not all wonderful, and I miss Thailand in small ways. I am losing my comfort with Thai, as I found yesterday as I tried to search online for the lyrics to a Thai song. I eat rice rarely if ever now, and the lack of street food in my diet has been comforting on my stomach but a wasteland for my tastebuds. The challenge will be to keep some part of this trip with me, and not to let it be subsumed by my old life, as easy as that may feel now that I am back on home soil. I have had moderate success with curry and pad thai on the family stove but it lacked some of the excitement that comes from the possibilities of miscommunication or food poisoning or both. I have also been thinking about some of my Thai friends in Chiang Mai whom I would love to bring to New Hampshire and show some of the generosity that they showed me. I keep them in mind as I drive through town, trying to see things like the town green and everyday obese Americans with their sense of astonishment. But then they probably wouldn't understand how strange it was until they returned home to Thailand and saw their home as differently as I have been seeing mine these past few days. And so it could continue back and forth.
This will be my last entry here. Now that I have returned home, for the forseeable future at least, I plan to write in different ways. This journal will remain online, at least until I find a way to put some of it in print. And if I write again online, for a different purpose or in a different guise, I will link to it here. And finally, thank you to the people who told me that they read this and felt close to me, even when I felt like I could not get any further from home.
But it's not all wonderful, and I miss Thailand in small ways. I am losing my comfort with Thai, as I found yesterday as I tried to search online for the lyrics to a Thai song. I eat rice rarely if ever now, and the lack of street food in my diet has been comforting on my stomach but a wasteland for my tastebuds. The challenge will be to keep some part of this trip with me, and not to let it be subsumed by my old life, as easy as that may feel now that I am back on home soil. I have had moderate success with curry and pad thai on the family stove but it lacked some of the excitement that comes from the possibilities of miscommunication or food poisoning or both. I have also been thinking about some of my Thai friends in Chiang Mai whom I would love to bring to New Hampshire and show some of the generosity that they showed me. I keep them in mind as I drive through town, trying to see things like the town green and everyday obese Americans with their sense of astonishment. But then they probably wouldn't understand how strange it was until they returned home to Thailand and saw their home as differently as I have been seeing mine these past few days. And so it could continue back and forth.
This will be my last entry here. Now that I have returned home, for the forseeable future at least, I plan to write in different ways. This journal will remain online, at least until I find a way to put some of it in print. And if I write again online, for a different purpose or in a different guise, I will link to it here. And finally, thank you to the people who told me that they read this and felt close to me, even when I felt like I could not get any further from home.
posted by DMF at 7:06 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home