It was strange when I first returned home. So many things I had to get used to. First and foremost, the cold. It was mid-November. It wasn't just cold compared to Samoa, we were hitting record cold temperatures for that time of year. And then we went up to Maryland to visit relatives for Thanksgiving, where it was even colder. There were times where I was convinced that the heat was turned off. But who cares? I was OFF the island! I was FREE! And I was spending Thanksgiving with my family for the first time since 2007!
Yes, I was happy. But life was still strange. I kept opening up the fridge whenever I got thirsty, because I expected to find a filter-pitcher of water inside, not remembering that the water from the tap was fine to drink as-is. And then I kept leaving my dishes in the sink, because I hadn't lived in a house with a dishwasher in years. When I had my first interview, I left the house wearing an outfit called a "suit and tie" and found that my windshield was covered in something called "frost," and that to get rid of this stuff, I needed to find something called an "ice scraper." And then I cleared my windshield with it and drove down a highway with almost no potholes, a 55 MPH speed limit and ways to get around cars that were driving too slowly. And then came this stuff called "snow." Bizarre. I gave out a few lava-lavas for Christmas presents and I had to explain what they were.
Then there's the odd reminders of the life that I left. A plastic, light-up coconut tree in the backyard, which looks really weird covered in snow. The salu (Samoan broom) that I got my mother for Christmas one year that sits behind the TV when not in use. Eating corned beef for St. Patrick's Day dinner. A refrigerator magnet for an All-Star Game that says "ASG." Coconuts selling at the local Food Lion for $3 each. Then there were the imagined ones. A worker on the tarmac at Charlotte-Douglas Airport is carrying a salu? Oh, a giant cone. A sign in Maryland is advertising Aiga clothes? Oh, Angie's clothes. Yeah.
Anyway...
*LOST-Style Flashback that starts with the next entry*
9 months ago
