a month later....

the first week or two i was here, i tried to write down every time i experienced something that was strange... reverse culture shock if you will... most of these things are small and mostly insignificant, but it was surprising to see what was strange to me, what i had forgotten, and what had become "normal" to me when living in Turkey for two years... your mind does strange things when you force it to adapt to new cultures... here are some of the things i noticed.... there are a LOT...

[[warning, these things are not to bash American culture, but to explain some differences & my initial reaction]]

1) i need to internalize thoughts here [in turkey, many times i would just say what i was thinking, assuming more likely than not, that the people around me didn't know English or couldn't understand me]
2) the first few days, i stared at everyone who was speaking English [and if you don't know, that means i stared at about 98% of people... in Turkey, any time i encountered an English speaker, i would stare out of surprise & then try to blend in so they wouldn't know i understood them]
3) i sometimes still find myself staring at people who yell [unless there's a huge dispute, Turks don't yell much... Americans, on the other hand....]
4) i couldn't open a bottle of water at the airport.. [it had a strange cap and made me thankful for the simplicity of plastics in Turkey]
5) AC is everywhere and I'm always freezing [you rarely encounter AC in Turkey...]
6) Toilets are different [you always flush your toilet paper here, for which i am thankful, the flushers are different, and there's a lot more water in the toilet than Turkish toilets]
7) FREE REFILLLLLLS!
8) No traffic... [even what most consider bad traffic here is not bad at all, and much less stressful! and, people drive IN THE LINES]
9) i constantly find myself overwhelmed by the amount of options....everywhere... [cell phone shopping, grocery shopping, cereal shopping, car shopping, etc.]
10) it's strange to stand up in church [i was a part of a house church and there were no social norms of standing/sitting/standing/sitting]
11) light switches.... [in turkey, most are outside the doors... in America, inside... i like inside better but it took a while to retrain my brain]
12) America is loud.
13) there are WATER FOUNTAINS [clean water from tap--ah, how i missed you!]
14) hot water lasts more than 7 minutes! [my hot water tank in turkey only lasted 7 minutes on a good day]
15) soft towels [no dryer in turkey=rough towels...]
16) my feet are drastically cleaner here [istanbul doesn't feel really dirty, but if i wore sandals, my feet would be black from walking around... not here!]
17) men don't freak out about babies [turkish men LOVE babies and cannot resist the urge to coo/talk/pinch/hold/kiss/hug every baby they see...]
18) there are so many outlets [my room in turkey had like 2 outlets... mine here has six]
19) i LOOOVE target [i still walk around wide-eyed]
20) very, very, very few people have asked me about my time in turkey... even fewer have asked good questions--past "so how was turkey?" or "are you glad to be back?"

this is about a third of the list i have so far.. i'll update more soon

i have been surprised at my emotions. i find myself overly emotional about things i shouldn't be and not very emotional at all about things that i should be. ah, transition....