Before leaving Turkey, I made a list of goals on my blog that I hoped to accomplish during the summer. One of my goals was to spend only a week in culture shock, compared to the month last summer. Let me explain the history behind this goal, and how it’s going now.

Last summer, after spending my first nine months in Turkey, I returned to America. The month before leaving Turkey was a whirlwind: constant people, Jake and Rana’s wedding, and many American visitors to Turkey. Returning to America wasn’t much better…Andy and Candy got married a little over a month after Jake and Rana. I came straight home to more people, more celebrating, and having to summarize a life-changing year to a LOT of people. When the celebrating suddenly ended, I had no idea what to do with myself.

There were a lot of things I had to do, but I just couldn’t decide what. I had to start working, I had to get settled, I had to see people. I just didn’t want to (which is completely unlike me.) I didn’t know what was wrong, until one day, maybe three weeks after returning, Jake said to me, “Are you going through reverse culture shock? Its ok if you are.” At first I was so offended, thinking, “I’m way too strong to go through reverse culture shock.” Then after pondering it for about a day, I realized that’s what it was reverse culture shock. After realizing that, I forced myself back into my American culture. It was such a weird position to be in, but I got through it.

This spring, I feared the same reaction when I got to America. I think this time I was prepared, since I was bracing myself for the worst. I came right into a schedule, working, hanging out with friends (but not too many.) I find myself feeling so comfortable and so normal right away, only two weeks since returning! I love going to dinner with friends, seeing the Twins massacre the Braves (6-0, thank you very much,) working, seeing my niece playing softball…and so on. It’s possible I’m moving onto another stage, though, finding only problems with my Minnesota home. Maybe I’ll share more about that in my next post. For now, I’m just happy to be feeling normal!