Milestone in Minnesota (and beyond)

Besides the new zombie bar in town and Obama's health care plan, the local blogosphere and general buzz here in Minnesota has also been focusing a lot on a new decision by the (Lutheran) ELCA that (some) same sex marriages will be recognized. Big news!

Shopping Day

Sitting at my best friend Kristin's house in St. Louis Park right now, showing her how this whole blog thing works :-)

Long day today!  We hit up the Wayzata Church sale at 8am, proceeded to go to some other shops for more sales, lunch with my mom and now movies (Time Traveler!) and pizza. Tired, but lots of fun. Also a bit bad because I bought 3 pairs of shoes... but gotta prepare for the winter, right?!

Ok, time to move onto the "publishing post" section of this lesson ;-)

Unpacking to Pack Again

Unpacking at the moment, so probably a bad time to send an update (still living out of suitcases, but starting to address all the "other" things I didn't send or bring home with me on this most recent move as I prepare to move to Boston in 2 weeks).  Wow.  I don't even know what to say.  I own SO MUCH STUFF.

Started going through all my stuff in storage and I'm slightly shocked (horrified?) by all that I own.  Probably a whole apartment worth of stuff at the farm (kitchen stuff, bed, etc), but just the clothing, sentimental paperwork (souvenirs and brochures from travel and Japan stuff I've brought back in past visits) and other random tidbits (especially jewelry, gifts, boxes, frames...).  Mammoth amount. Out of control. 

I think I need to simplify my life a bit.  I've always been a little bad with transition in the first stages (can you tell? haha), but like moving around and like my space and that lifestyle is just not congruent with the massive amount of material things I own.  I definitely don't need anything right now, which is a good thing, but I am really considering looking into holding a garage sale before I go!!

Alright, back to organizing (just thought I'd comment)!  More later!

All You Need Is...

Binary heard from xkcd. Love it.

Home in America. Week 2.

Installment 2 of the transition back to home/America/life as normal (old normal? familiar normal?):

I've come to realize that a lot of the culture shock that's been hitting me is social.  Three years is a long time to be gone and there have been a lot of changes, particularly in the last year or so.  Minnesota culture sort of stays the same in a charming way, but there is a lot of variance to how things used to be.  For one, people are working and are busy now while I'm free (touched on this before, but the concept has permeated further in the last week).  When I've been here before, it's been Busyville central - I was running around and on a limited schedule - but now that I have more time and am home permanently (to a degree)... I'm feeling the difference.  My friends are more settled in their jobs and careers, which is good, but the free time is sort of a mixed blessing in ways.  I'm living at home and am dependent upon my parents for a car (which I have to compete with my college-aged brother for), which adds another layer, especially after 3 years of living alone and being able to hop on a train to go wherever whenever I wanted to. A lot of people have stayed here, but there are also many people that aren't here and I feel that difference, too.  Those that are here have also changed in further ways.  Again, I said this before, but a lot of friends have gotten married or even have kids.  I think this is a wonderful thing, but now the girlfriends I used to talk to a lot or go out with now go home early and hang out with their husbands (formerly the boyfriends we used to chat about) or have to get to bed for work, so they're busier and have different priorities and schedules.  You'd think it'd be similar to before, but it's definitely... different.  

Maybe I've changed, too.  I know I have.  I feel older (mature is a better word?) and have all these memories and experiences I'm trying to fit into context and am figuring out how to do it slowly.  Minneapolis (while constant in cultural traits) seems smaller than I remember it (literally).  Very flat.  Very spread out. And not necessarily boring, but the little things that I found exciting before are sort of nostalgic but not necessarily thrilling.  Japan is just very unique, so I guess getting back to normal now feels like the adjustment rather than fitting my home culture into a context that I expect to be foreign.  I think it matters that I'm not making adventures to do the exciting things and trying to relax, so I'm feeling the burn of slowing down a bit.  It probably comes down to the fact that I'm the type of person who likes to be busy and not having something to do (school, works, etc), even with vacation time, gets old after a bit.  I haven't just been sitting around but I guess I like purpose and am ready to have one again soon.

All that and way too much analyzation aside, I guess I haven't only been sitting around.  Had a really great day on Friday.  Met an old coworker and her husband for lunch downtown (realizing the new stadium is well on it's way - huge new complex!?!).  This friend left Minneapolis to work for a retailer based in New York around the time I left for Japan and it was fun catching up and hearing about the coast I'll soon be calling home.  That night, I went to a bachelorette (for the sister of a friend who now lives in NYC, too) and went rode the pedal pub, basically a bar with 5 bikes on each side that you ride around the city.  My butt hurts because I was a little too short and had to reach for the pedals (back to being in the land of tall Scandinavians and Germans!), but it was a really interesting experience and everyone we rode past waved or yelled out, which was pretty cool.  The party ended early, so I drove to meet yet another friend from Norway/CLV in town for a wedding who did the Peace Core and also lives in NYC (yeah, I know... NY day?!).  We met at a pub, where I ran into a group of college friends and some other camp friends.  A lot of catching up and loved seeing them, but that was all in one day alone.  Spent Saturday lunching with a girlfriend from school and then spent Sat night at a friend's house, making Japanese food (enough for 20 people to serve 3!), talking politics, sipping homemade beer (the "Brendawisen"... it was great - my friend Chris is amazing!) and then saw a friend from high school again and went to a wedding reception for even more Norway/camp friends on Sunday night.  Lots going on.

I'm really glad I have so much time at home, but will probably find myself with a handful of errands to do when it's time to move again in 2 weeks.  

Anyways, doing fine and working on getting back into the swing, but I'll check in again soon.  I'll probably a few more posts on this blog before I sign off for good (maybe start a new one for New England?), but until then... Coping. Having fun. Loving the time with family. And definitely grateful for the last 3 years, even if it means I'm not "settled down" (that was a joke from last time if the sarcasm didn't translate)... 

First Days Back in the US

It's been about a week since I moved back to the states so I thought I should check in.

Minnesota feels very normal in so many ways.  When I arrived, the thing that hit me first was how FLAT it (seriously watched the green farm plots for a good 10 minutes in awe as we were landing and was further awed by what should be a familiar landscape - just devoid of mountainous and smokestack-filled landscapes that I'm used to seeing - driving home) was but otherwise, not too many changes on the surface level.  But as time has gone on, I feel like there have been layers of realization and surprised that develop on a daily basis.

Culture shock is one thing most people are asking about. You get a lot of warnings about reverse culture shock when preparing for an international move (especially coming home after being gone for several years), but to start with, the toughest part of coming back has honestly been the jetlag.  It's taken me a full week to get used to the time difference, but I'm finally sleeping through the night here.  I think I was so focused on visiting people and doing stuff while I was here the last 2 summers that I've been home to visit, that I just pushed through the issues that come with a 14 hour difference (total day/night flip), but this time was a bit rough.  I was up at 4am pretty much every day for the first few days and found myself feeling very tired during the day.  I tried Nodoze (safe sleeping pills from the drug store) after day 2 without sleep, but they didn't help much, and it took about 5 days before I was able to safely take a nap during the day without my body thinking it was bedtime.  Before that, it just felt like doing all-nighters day after day and my body trying (unsuccessfully) to catch up on sleep in between.  I tried to just take it slow and take the first few days off, but even that plan was more of a struggle than I remembered with my family wanting to do things now that I'm BACK, and the process seemed longer than it did when I came back from 6 weeks in Asia in 2004, when I taught in China.

I thought I would be exempt from actual culture shock this time, or at least only encounter it in small doses, since I've done it before with Norway but it's funny how it hits you in the smallest ways.  Japan is just so different from home, but so normal to me in so many ways and the small situations that come with readjusting to a life without those differences in my day-to-day had definitely caught me off guard a few times.  I went to get my computer fixed at the mall this week and was stunned when the people at Apple (5 employees standing near the door) didn't overtly (and overly) express their profound gratitude to me for stopping in the store.  I waited for it, but they just stood there and didn't even smile when I was obviously leaving with purchases from the store.  I stopped in the Gap for a second to check out what's "in" here and  was halted when I didn't get a face cover to try on clothing in the dressing room or have to take off my shoes (for nice carpeting) in the changing rooms.  I had trouble with my first few showers here because I'm now so used to taking baths, but I find myself wanting to take baths more than showers now (because that's what I had to adjust to in Japan) and was a little uncomfortable getting soap in the water when I did run a bath (or realizing I can't run the bath water in advance and cover the tub so the water stays warm and can be reused because you clean your body and wash your hair before you even get in so it stays fresh).  Finally, on a different occasion, I went out to dinner with two girlfriends from high school and felt uncomfortable taking a sip of my wine when we didn't do a kampei (cheers) beforehand.  Strange.  

While Minnesota feels normal (though not necessarily like a place I LIVE still, like it has in the past), a lot of my friends have gotten married or had babies since I left which has also presented a major lifestyle change.  I'm living with my parents, getting directives on planning my schedule, borrowing a car (my old car, which I now share with my brother - and need to get around because there's no real public transport) and am getting all these questions about my life plans and when I'm going to "settle down" (in Minnesota) to a degree I've never experienced before... when I'm really still in a phase where I want to tell stories from all these cool experiences I've just had.  So yeah, I guess culture shock is hitting.  I do realize that life goes on here, though, and that even though I'm on vacation and just got home, other people's lives have gone on and that people don't necessarily want to hear all of my stories at once (or can't relate to all of them), but it's also a change from the expat community where most people I associate with do travel internationally a lot and have similar lifestyles.  It's something I guess I need to adjust to (because I'm the one who needs to relate to people at home).  It's just a reminder I've been gone a long time and life goes on... maybe has so more than I realized, even though I've tried to keep up with here while I'm gone.  

I have about 2 more weeks in Minnesota before I leave for grad school in Boston and I am looking forward to them and am really, really happy to be here.  It feels nice to be around family and friends.  Hard to believe I was running through rice fields a week ago when I'm napping with the cat now, but both lives have their charm.  I am ready to be here and feel like I left Japan content and at a good time... just adjusting :-P