settled back in

ooook. well, I'm home, basking in tomatoes from the garden and sweaty skin and solitary dips in the river and all the smells and tastes and sounds of this life. Music! Summer rain! Mediterranean food! I seem to have avoided most of the culture shock potentially awaiting me upon my return. You know, I think that may be partly because I was feeling pretty negative about the American way of life before I left, I was sort of expecting the onslaught of consumerism and apathy upon my arrival in the Miami airport. too-big houses and too-many things and a forgetfulness here sometimes, an unthinkingness about privilege. Of course this is a cynical blanket statement- not even beginning to sum up the complexities of lifestyles and cultures in the US. I already knew that, too, but I think being forced to defend my country and my people against this very stereotype that most of the rest of the world holds made me reflect so much more on all the interesting and varied facets of our culture (or cultures, more accurately). Mostly what I feel right now when I think about Ecuador is a sort of contented secret feeling. Kind of silly, I know, but secret in that (despite the fact that I have kept you all updated so thoroughly) there is so much about my little nook in this little part of the world that is simply unable to be recounted. Relationships and smells and the mundane patterns I learned in my daily routine. As simple as they are I have this small greedy feeling that they're mine, packed away and locked with this foreign tongue. On a less new age flaky woman-sounding note, another notable change is that I find myself to be even more of a tight wad than usual...lunch for more than $1.20?? Whadda rip off!

Well, I have several weeks worth of undocumented journal entires that I feel like I should probably get on out there, so here's the final installment. It feels a little weird doing this now that I'm back, but for closure's sake, I will press on.