I've said before that stepping back in to life in the States has been mostly uneventful, and while I am still waiting for the difficulty of culture shock-ing in your own culture, for now, a couple observations:
1. It's freezing everywhere. It appears to be a cooler summer than normal (average about 90 so far, I think), but inside every single store and at least half the apartments and homes I've been in, it is arctic. The place I'm staying now keeps it at about 73 or 74 which isn't cold but I've spent all but one of my last seven summers un-air-conditioned. Y'all, I'm still not used to this. It is frigid. The upside is I'm really comfortable at night. Holler.
2. Since when did everyone and their mother either become gluten intolerant or choose to eat gluten-free? It's everywhere. So many restaurants have a gluten-free option. Very interesting.
3. This morning was one of the first times I've spoken Romanian extensively since I left Turkey. I've written plenty emailing back and forth, but it was the weirdest feeling. It's all still there, albeit rusty, but I could feel myself having to sit back and just trust my mouth, that what would come out was right. Almost like I had to step aside and let my brain do what it knows all while having some feeling of uncertainty--I haven't thought in Romanian in exactly a month and there was definitely a gap between what I was thinking and what was coming out of my mouth. I'm not explaining this well at all, but it's almost like, even though I was thinking in English but not translating either, some other part of my brain was making it come out of my mouth in Romanian. As if the process were happening in my mouth instead of my head, trusting some sort of muscle memory or something. Does anybody know what the heck I'm talking about or have you experienced this?
The good news is that after half an hour of talking it won't feel so compartmentalized anymore, but jumping back in was the weirdest sensation.
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