Home Again

So today I have been officially home in the United States of America for one whole week (wave flags and sparklers here). It was an exhausting flight full of Canadian Green Peace workers, immigrants from Africa, Billy Bobs, June Bobs, Sally May Bobs, and me: a tall, skinny white guy easily mistaken for a college student carrying 55 kilos (about 100lbs.) of luggage and a book with a weird language (Estonia) on the cover. Guess who got asked the most questions? My particularly favorite instance was the wonderful worker at Canadian customs who held up our already extraordinarily slow-moving line by flirting with short blonde in front of me (who was wearing a wedding ring)...I doubt it was his wife, who then (the worker) proceeded to grill me about my immigration papers.

Having worked up a healthy sweat-sheen from hauling my luggage across Toronto's Airport, and shaking from the physical strain, I handed him my now crumpled, blue immigration form and passport. Although I am an Amercan citizen, my passport shows hardly any signs of being in America. In fact, over the last 10 months, my passport had been stamped 40 times, over half of which were to Estonia (only 1 to America). Let me just say, he did not like the looks of me. My story seemed to go by ok until he looked up my flight number...which did not appear on his screen. It seemed that I was trying to fly on a plane that did not exist. Eventually we found out I was simply in the wrong terminal, but for awhile, we (the worker and I ) were pretty sure we would have to speak to someone higher on the chain of command. 3 hours on a plane, and an equal number of hours of delays later and I was home...finally.

So what's it been like?

The first thought through my head as I waited in the Cleveland aiport was, "I'm freezing here!" The United States is, for the most part, an overly-airconditioned land. It's bizzare to think that it was colder inside the airport than the country I had come from only a few hundred miles from the Arctic Cirlce. The second thought was that Americans are sloppy. This isn't entirely true...unless you're in an airport. Since when did our countrymen decide that it was acceptable to wear pajamas on a plane? About every other person was wearing sweats, adidas pants, or fleece something-or-other on their body, and those silly-looking plastic, neon comfort sandals. Does it make the flight that more comfortable? Really?

Since then, I've been slowly readjusting to life in the US. I drive my car everywhere...despite the price of gas. I don't even know where the bus stops in my town are! I have been to a fast food restraunt 4 times (this is exaggerated by my need to re-culturalize), and I have watched more TV in the last week than the last 2 months in Europe combined. I bought new clothes that I probably don't need, as well as electronics. Oh...and I've only gone outside (not counting time inside the car) for maybe a total of 2.5 hours. I'd feel remorseful or guilty, but I'm too drained by my own slovenliness to feel such strong emotions.

Behind the scense, however, and this is the plus side to the story, I've been making preparations for my move across the country. This will commence in about 3 weeks when I will pack my life together again (after a short assessment of my assets, I realized I own very little) and move to Seattle! I am looking for jobs, apartments, travel routes, and taking care of school needs, family visits, and other odds and ends. So..all is not lost. I am in pursuit of destiny, the "American Dream", and new life, a new home, or at the very least, a clean place to rest my rump while I catch up on the next season of my favorite shows :D It's good to be back!

Picture: http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/CORPOD/JS1262564~Statue-of-Liberty-and-American-Flag-Posters.jpg