Home for Christmas

Turns out, I am a lot more focused on blogging when I'm in Honduras than when I'm in the USA! After a painful layover in Atlanta when my flight was cancelled and the snowstorm was making air travel nearly impossible, I am finally home. And my overwhelming emotion about being home is simply how nice things are in America. Things are really, really nice here. The bathrooms smell amazingly disinfected. I can flush my toilet paper. The public sinks have hot water. I had also forgotten how efficient things are in the USA. I went into a drugstore yesterday, and there were aisles and aisles of makeup, shampoo, groceries, skin care... pretty much anything imaginable, under the bright glow of fluorescent lights. I felt similarly overwhelmed in the grocery store- so much fresh food that doesn't have to be washed in bleach, so much room in the aisles, so many varieties of salad (pasta salad, potato salad, chicken salad, tuna salad).

So, America's nice. However, America is also cold. It's freezing, actually. My skin and lips are so dry and chapped, and I hate standing outside. Ohio is very flat, also. I miss the mountains. I miss the expanse of the Honduran night sky. I miss not having the television as a distraction. I miss the river. I miss speaking Spanish. I am already starting to appreciate the things about my life in Honduras that I took for granted, like the slower pace and the simplicity of my life. I definitely miss my friends and neighbors.

I love being home and seeing my family. I like America a lot. But my heart is definitely in two places. I like all the efficiencies of home, but I don't need them. I am really excited about having two weeks here, but I know when I go back to Honduras, I will feel excited for many reasons. For now, I will simply enjoy the niceties of American life, which includes delicious food, time with family, movies, and central heating.

In any case... happy holidays and merry christmas to all :)