Pouting
We returned from Costa Rica last night, and today I’m pouting. It’s no fun to leave the tropics and return home to piles of laundry and an empty refrigerator.
I tend to come down pretty hard after returning home from an exotic destination. My body freaks out from the rude transition of warm sunshine to cold darkness, and I go through a bout of culture shock as I adjust back to the American lifestyle that is nothing like the way people live in most of the rest of the world. I came down so hard after a two week trip to the Dominican Republic over winter break in college that I had to go on medication and see a therapist. My body and spirit writhed in pain when I went from a tropical paradise where everyone, regardless of their living conditions, greeted you with “Hola! Hola!” to a frozen tundra where everyone walked with their heads down and scowls on their faces despite the fact that they were attending one of the best universities in the country.
This time, however, I am happy to report that I have not fallen into a deep depression, and instead I’m only pouting a bit as I unpack and regroup. It makes me blue that I don’t have a palm tree and an abundance of fresh tropical fruit to greet me this morning, but I’m very grateful that instead of it being 16 degrees outside that it’s a pleasant 61 and I can get my fruit fix via the smoothie joint down the street. I felt loneliness sink in as I watched Steve pack and leave for his business trip this weekend, but I’m very excited to see Moanna in a couple of days who is totally stoked about the new nail polish she got. We called her last night as soon as we left the airport, and her new nail polish was all she talked about.
I don’t know if I prepared myself for the return home, and that’s why I’m not in shock, or if it’s because I have so much more to come home to now, or if it’s because it wasn’t snowing when I got off the plane, or because I know that we have many adventure ahead of us (ie family vaca to Hawaii this time next year). It’s probably a combination of a little bit of everything, and a little pouting is healthy after a great trip, so I’m gong to roll with it.
Today you can find me in my bum clothes unpacking, sorting through hundreds of pictures, plotting the attack of a few pieces of mail we received while away and eating the scraps I can find in the house. Tomorrow, I’ll start documenting the adventures we had and planning our future adventures that are both near and far – probably in my bum clothes.
**The picture above was taken from the plane yesterday on our way home. No clue of our exact or approximate location. It was somewhere between Costa Rica and Belize.**
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