Culture Shock?
Trip Start
Jul 01, 2009
1
56
61
Trip End
Jul 01, 2010
Temecula, California
Monday, May 24, 2010
Jenny’s sister, Nancy, asked us to get a free shuttle from LAX to the Marriott, which we did. We then called to let her know we were there and she said they’d be there in about an hour. We took advantage of free wi-fi and a sports bar at the hotel waiting for them to arrive (we found out that they started the baseball season without us). When they did arrive, we were happy to see Nancy, Bill and Samantha, but then were shocked (and delighted) to see that Jenny’s brother, John Bruce was also with them. After excitedly saying hello to them, we looked up, and Jenny’s mother and step dad (Al) were also there – another wonderful surprise! Jenny’s other brother, David met us later that night for dinner with Tori and her half-brother and family. Jenny’s entire family had flown down (from Oregon and Washington) to greet us and welcome us back to the US. It was truly amazing!
But the fun didn’t stop there … when we got out of the Marriott, we were told to put our backpacks into a stretch limousine out front. Bill had bought and updated the limo as a new business venture a little while ago, and they all came to fetch us in it. We had champagne on ice in the back, and we were able to watch movies all the way to Pasadena (for dinner) and then on to Temecula (their home). It was a pretty wonderful welcome back!
We spent the entire week with family. We visited wineries around Temecula the next day. John Bruce had to leave a day or two later, and Mom and Al left mid week, but we tried to make the most of the time we had with them. We spent the first part of the week at Nancy and Bill’s house. We were in the pool as much as possible. Later in the week, we did the So Cal thing and enjoyed Wally World with Nancy and Samantha (our 8-year-old niece), and later, Bill. Disneyland is quite a bit of fun with a 2nd grader! We had a good time.
Everyone asked us if it was a culture shock to come back to the US after about 9 months out of the country. The family greeting, limo, pool, Disneyland and So Cal living certainly were different from anything we experienced overseas. We wouldn’t say that it was a shock to the system, though. We have been talking about "re-entry" for awhile now, so we were more or less ready for it. It was nice to put the brain on auto-pilot for a little while; do our laundry in machines that don’t take 3 hours to wash clothes; drive on the right side of the road; and have people around you who have known you forever. Hopefully, that won’t be a permanent state when we get home (auto-pilot, that is), but after months of having to be aware and vigilant 24/7, it was a nice rest.
We’re off to Europe for one more month, now. We will fly to London to end our Round the World ticket, and then immediately fly on to Ireland. We will spend about 10 days in Ireland, and then we meet Paul’s niece, Brittany, in Paris for a few days. Our friend, Riley (who is also like a niece to us), flies into Paris just before Brittany flies out (Britt is studying in Prague for a couple of months). We will travel with Riley from Paris to Bavaria to visit our friends Elke, Thomas, Jakob and Jonas again, and then on to Prague (to visit Brittany again). Riley flies back to the US from Prague late in June. We will fly back to London for a few more days (we love London and it was our hub for this trip – it will be good for us to end the trip there). We will fly to Boston for one night (to visit with Paul’s family), before arriving back in Oregon on July 1st. It’s a “world”-wind ending to the trip.
Enough for now. Please keep in touch and we’ll try to do the same. As noted above, we’re packing a lot into the next few weeks, so we may not be on top of blogging, but we’ll get to it as quickly as we can.
Keep living the dream; this ain’t no dress rehearsal.
- Jenny and Paul
