Coming to America

I never realized how much I loved my country until I had been away for so long. Tears literally sprang to my eyes when I found out that there was even a possibility of coming home. Before leaving the Netherlands, I shared with a friend how much I missed driving my car and Wal-Mart- both things that irritated me when I lived in the States. The vastness of the country beckoned me. English everywhere and the occasional Spanish excited me.  Promises of free refills and cups filled to the rim with ice refreshed me. Ah, America.

The adventure to return home started significantly on July 4^th. I said goodbye to my last awkward Dutch experience (after buying some breakfast at the store at the train station I answered “no thanks, I don’t need a bag” in response to the clerk telling me to have a nice day. I totally deserved the “you’re an idiot look” she gave me) and travelled to the airport. I was flying on a Delta buddy pass which meant flying standby. Despite the uncertainty of even getting on a plane, I ended up having a really smooth experience, in first class nonetheless. For those of you haven’t flown first class internationally, I recommend that you don’t do so unless you can afford to do it forever. It was such a luxurious experience that returning to coach is going to be near impossible.

23 hours of cumulative travel later I arrived in Charleston, SC just in time to enjoy some fireworks celebrating my return- I mean America’s birthday. Despite my earlier desires to experience America, I fell in love with a book and lying in the sun. I was so addicted to this book that my dad called to see if I was in the country and ask why I hadn’t called. (“Sorry, you know how I get with a good book.”) 500 pages later and the beginnings of a sunburn on my face, found me in my Honda Fit driving to Wal-Mart and cursing out bad drivers just like the good ole days. The enormousness of Wal-Mart totally overwhelmed me after 6 months of tiny elbow bumping stores. Two and a half hours later, I left with 3 bags of missed toiletries, veggie bacon, and kraft mac’n cheese, having spent way more time and money than intended. It was a true Wal-Mart experience.

After 2 days of reading, sun burning, and a Wal-Mart coma, I hopped in my car for a road trip to Knoxville, TN. I spent a long weekend there with good friends and their new babies and of course attended the beautiful and classy wedding of the friends who got us a Delta buddy pass (unfortunately the pizza stone I got her, does not convey even a fraction of my gratitude for getting me home). Gearoid met me in Knoxville with his own buddy pass and between wedding activities we drove the car, shopped, and caught up on love affairs of American food (blue berry pancakes! Arnold Palmers-the drink!).

Wedding reception

After Knoxville, we had 3 weeks of greatness with family and friends in Charleston, Orlando, Vero, and Coral Springs. We wholly enjoyed seeing everyone we could and were sorry for those we couldn’t see mostly due to time constraints and the hugeness of America. Between family visits, we saw many movies (i.e. Harry Potter!Crazy, Stupid, Love! Horrible Bosses!), caught up on food and drink (i.e. Starbucks! Mexican food! Margaritas! Thai Food! Chili’s!), cooled off in the ocean and my dad’s pool, and were surrounded with English (the language not the people). I baked with an oven (lasagna! Spanakopita! Cookies!) and enjoyed the giant portions at restaurants. I thoroughly enjoyed getting saturated in AC for a few hours before thawing out in the intense 90 degree heat. The giantness of parking lots, intersections, and stores astounded me. None of this was new after over 20 years of living in the States. However, the familiarity was refreshing.

Giant chimichanga with delicious margarita

My homemade veggie lasagna

Gearoid, however, had a different experience. My joy met his impatience and annoyance for all things American. Things he thought he missed about the States, were forgotten after sweating from the short walk from the house to the car or the lack of “real” news on news programs. 6 months in the Netherlands has returned Gearoid to his roots- he is truly European. We agreed to disagree on the wonderfulness of my home country.

All good things must come to an end though and after almost a month of America we had to head back to Europe so Gearoid could work and I could find work. The day before we left, we went to the theater to see one more movie. We walked in the cool lobby after the brief but intensely hot walk from the parking lot and I took a deep breath. The air was saturated with the buttery aroma of popcorn. Gearoid commented that it smelled good. My response without thinking was, “It smells like America.” 

Good times with my brother Josh