On the one hand, I’ve adjusted very well to life back home. It’s wonderful being close to family and friends again. Many features of everyday live have gone on the way they always have—to be expected, of course. Others have changed dramatically. The church I’ve known since childhood no longer exists. My (paternal) grandparents’ health has declined rapidly, forcing the sale of their home of forty years, in order for them to be closer to family.
Many things, however, seem unchanged. I am back at Portland State, chugging along and getting pesky general requirements I’ve been putting off out of the way. Downtown is torn up. The MAX train takes as long as usual, and is filled with people yacking away on cell phones, also as usual. The cats are as weird as usual. Fred Meyer is in the same spot, offering the same American grocery experience (I knew before I left that grocery shopping would be one of the major facets of German everyday life I would miss).
So, to answer the first question, life has in many ways continued on so normally that it does sometimes seem like it was all a dream.
As for the second question, I’m still figuring it out. More on that later.
< A happy reunion with Pete >
< A bittersweet goodbye, inside the empty and condemned church building where many childhood memories were made. In its place will be a Taco Bell. >
