Christmas vacation has ended and I’m back in Egypt, my current home. Going home for Christmas was awesome, tiring and expensive all at the same time. It was great to see my family and friends after being away for four months. I think it was also nice for my friends and family to see me alive and well. It wasn’t as weird as I was expecting it to be to be back at home. I was forewarned by a few people that getting reverse culture shock or it just feeling different was always a possibility. Four months really isn’t that long so it was just like I was on a long vacation and now I came home. The majority of my friends and family asked about Egypt but I really feel like that is one of those questions that all they really want to hear is “it’s good, I like it”. That question is similar to “good morning, how are you?” You really are just being polite and want a one word answer. Some people were genuinely interested but it’s hard for me to describe some of the events I’ve experienced or seen. Traveling abroad and seeing amazing different cultures and meeting so many new people is hard to describe to someone who wasn’t there. I think it’s even more that they aren’t able to appreciate the awesomeness of what you are explaining. For this reason I found myself giving brief explanations of my life in Egypt.
Being home for only seventeen days and having Christmas and New Years I really had to somewhat have marathon visiting sessions. I did get to see everyone with the exception of a few people. It was fabulous to hang out with the monkey almost everyday – she’s amazing and I love her. It was great to be back home for the cold and snow and Illinois did not disappoint. When I left it was zero and a few days it was below zero. It also snowed around a foot probably even more which was nice but a lot too.
The US is expensive – period, end of story! This thought really didn’t even hit me until about two days before I left Egypt and I realized, shit I have to spend money when I go home. So I quickly put myself on a budget to go home. I know!! So needless to say all of my traveling really added up in gas money. Even being on a budget and not going crazy I spent more than I wanted to. Now my poor roommates have to listen to me complain about how much money I spent when I went home. I will only be complaining about this until the end of February. So for the next few months I’m laying low and building up that savings – spring break is only a few months away.
Later skaters 🙂
Teaching & Traveling 