This past December I got the best Christmas present in the world, I spent the holidays at home with my family after having gone a year in a half without seeing them. I couldn’t have asked for a better present.
You see, last Christmas I spent in my site and I wouldn’t say it was bad, but there is nothing like being with family for the holidays. Plus, last Christmas I tried to teach the moms in my mother’s group about potluck dinners, only to realize someone’s potluck at the party was really not lucky at all and must have come with a side of parasites. Needless to say I spent Christmas to New Years throwing up worms, and taking a tour of Ecuador and Peru’s dirtiest public restrooms. So even the thought of being home for xmas this year was too good to be true.
Now, after having been gone for a year in a half and kind of living in my own little world in my little site, being back in the US did present some culture shocks. When I landed in the Miami airport, I entered the iphone, ipad, blackberry world. It was like walking through an obstacle course to get to my gate, you had to keep dodging people as they all walked with their heads down, eyes and attention fixated on their little itouch thing. I had actually never even heard of an ipad. When I was boarding my flight, a lady passed me that was boarding the priority line and she had this ipod in her hands that was like an ipod on crack, my first thoughts were an ipod for the visually impaired? I mean really it was bigger than my laptop! I was never much of a technology person before the peace corps (I once was given an ipod, but I never learned how to use itunes, so to this day it has no music), but being down here I really felt like I’d been living in the cave age or something. I wasn’t very good at using my mom’s touch screen phone either, the first time I tried to call someone all I heard was “Sarah, I can’t really here you, it must be a bad connection.” I thought “that’s weird my mom was just using it fine.” I guess it helps to be holding the phone the right way up so you’re talking into the microphone part, didn’t make that mistake again! I also played wii for the first time while home, and by play I mean became obsessed with! Now, although my 11 year old sister beat me in every game possible, I’m gonna have to blame that on my lack of wii experience not my umm lack of coordination and balance. I also went to my first 3D movie, TRON. The only thing I’d ever seen in 3D was Hunny I shrunk the kids at Univesal, who would have ever thought back then that soon you’d be able to watch 3D in the movies and in your home! I also went with my brother to Best Buy one day, it was like a grownup Disney World. Touch screen desktops, a 3D tv, the play station connect… amazing. Although I know realistically I would be that person that if I ever had one of those things in my house, I’d probably read the instruction manual and then still have to call my older brother who is much more tech savvy every couple of hours to get it to work again (I think in three weeks I must have hit the wrong button and throwing off the digital cable at least 15 times, oosp!).
Another big culture shock was prices. No more food shopping for the week on $5. When I got to the Miami airport I wanted just a snack to hold me over til Orlando. I searched for the two cheapest things in the wing I was in… an apple and a water bottle for $4.35! Yikes!
One day I went for a jog through our community. As I ran down the nicely paved sidewalk, I ran past this house where a lady had just opened her front door and out came running these two huge greyhound dogs. They were barking and dashing towards me. Now, being that in my site I usually run with a rock in my hand to fend off street dogs who will bite you before you know what hit you, I was prepared to take action when I saw these two dogs. First instinct, pick up rocks fast. While continuing my jog, I scanned the ground for a rock only to realize “oh no, I’m on a paved sidewalk, with grass on both sides, there are no rocks!” Then I looked up realizing the dogs were close… and bam! They ran straight into their electric fence. Yup, the two dogs ran right into their barrier and were stuck, right there on the other side of that invisible line barking at me. Now, after having been bit by a dog once here in Ecuador and being almost attacked many times, I had to enjoy that moment more than the normal person. What else would be expected than to stand on that sidewalk and antagonize those dogs for a couple of minutes?
December in Florida, and on the East Coast in general, was especially cold this year. When I left Arenillas it was probably in the 90s but felt even hotter. When I got to FL, 16 degrees! What’s that?! In Florida? Some even said there were snow flurries on Christmas day in Tallahassee (I was further South in Brooksville though, although it was equally cold there!) My parents have a cabin in North GA, and they had more snow than ever, up to 14 inches! Of course, we couldn’t miss snow days being so close to Florida, soon after Christmas we headed up to GA. The night when we got to the cabin it was freezing cold and there was lots of snow on the ground. Julia and I ran inside, went through Tupperware containers of random winter clothes, put on everything we could find, and although it was midnight, started our snow ball fight. That is how you can tell Floridians from northerners. Floridians would play outside at midnight in the freezing cold. Floridians come to the snow in flocks and wear an odd assortment of every piece of winter clothing they could find. None of that looking cute matching brands stuff. Heck, I wore my brothers size 13 men’s boots the whole time even though I felt like I was walking with those giant ski boots on! Our snow days were a blast! The snow lasted for three days, before finally melting, but we packed those days with snow ball fights, snow angels, building snowmen, and sledding.
I learned three really important lessons about snow that week.
Lesson one: those puddles that you see in the road aren’t puddles. That’s ice. And when you try to walk on it, you slid, and it hurts. It took me two falls to remember that one.
Lesson two: When the locals park their cars on the side of the highway, that must mean you shouldn’t follow that small road going up. Only tourist make the mistake of driving into ice filled parking lots.
Lesson three: I only had two pair of shoes with me, the sneakers I got for xmas and a pair of heals I wore for xmas. After our first day of sledding my shoes were really wet and cold, and that afternoon the plan was to go to the cabin, change quickly and head an hour south to Crane Creek Winery. Now, coming up I didn’t see much snow south of Clayton, GA. SO I figured the winery probably didn’t have any either. I decided to let my sneakers dry and wear my heels. Ooh bad idea! They had over 14 inches of snow, more than Dillard! As my feet sank in almost knee deep into the snow, I could not feel my toes, I thought for sure that had to be what they call frost bit. So, new rule, wear the wet sneakers next time!
During the rest of our trip, we went to the Rabun Gap School each day to sled. They have these great hills, and everyone in town or passing through heads there to sled. It is what one could call, hmm, Redneck Sledding. No sled? No problem. There are many things you can use to sled. When we first got there we saw this one family having their kids sit in plastic garbage bags and try to get down the hill… most ended with big wipe outs. Then there was the girl who was using the top of a Tupperware container, although it didn’t take her too far. There were also families using pool tubes and rafts to go down to snow covered hill. And the best of all someone had used a broken stretcher, and someone else a piece of cardboard. Desperate times for some fun in the snow, desperate means! We had little snow disks, and with those we went flying down each time… with the occasional “oh no, that’s a tree, abandon disk fast!” type-of-wipeouts.
No worms. A little culture shock. Lots of rice balls (thank you grandma). Great food. More food. Wine. More Wine. Snow days. Wineries. Great times. Great memories. Best of all, my family and friends. What could be a better way to spend the holidays!
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