Weirdos

No matter how many times we return to the States, we never stop feeling like weirdos when we get here. I swear, we feel so odd!

It's particularly bad during the first week. We are jet-lagged and cultured-shocked. Culture-choked, as Barbara says. God bless her use of the English language! Her English is so good! But tiny mistakes make things come to light in great ways. So yea, we get culture-choked.

Byron and I ventured into Trader Joe's the other day. OK, it was on our first full day back. But anyway, we needed some food.

I LOVE TRADER JOE'S! Everything is beautiful! The food, the lay out, the choices, the friendly people who work there. I used to tell Byron, when we lived in the wilderness of East Africa, that I could stay there forever if there was just a Trader Joe's.

But it's SO overwhelming! The place just seems so perfect and amazing!

Well, we thought we were covering for our freaked-out-ness. Thought we looked like the other people in the shop, casually making choices and dropping the items into our baskets.

But when we got to the cash register, the friendly man looked more kind and concerned then I would take to be normal.

"Have you guys been on a long trip this summer?" he asked

We started laughing. "It's that obvious, isn't it?"

A long trip! Um.... yea.