Counter-Culture Shock

Fifteen dollars for a sandwich?!  No no no.  Wait – HOW much is a beer!?  A t-shirt is $20?!  What happened, why is everything so expensive?

Coming back home has been wonderful, but it certainly hasn’t been an easy adjustment.

For starters – my stomach has struggled more to adapt to food coming home than it ever did when I was in Asia.  I ate my body weight in milk and cheese the first 24 hours I was home and have never felt more sick in my life.  Asia doesn’t have milk cows, and has to import all of its dairy – which makes things very expensive, especially for a poor student.  Cheese is difficult to find, and when I can find it, (usually at Rotary events) I skip the tempting chocolates, crepes and other desserts and sacrifice all of my stomach space for cheese, because it is so rare.  Coming home to cheese, milk and dairy was incredibly exciting – except not for my stomach.

Having been in Asia for so long, I didn’t realize how little I had heard English until I came home.  Waiting for my luggage in the airport, I found myself inching closer to random strangers, just to eavesdrop on their conversations, because I hadn’t heard so many people speak English in so long!  Going to the Giants game, I struggled to give my undivided attention to the game (in part because Buster Posey was on the field ;) but mainly because everyone in the bleachers was speaking English, and I had never had the chance to eavesdrop on so much gossip in months!  It was bizarre to enjoy overhearing random conversations between strangers, but when in Asia I never have the opportunity so this was truly exciting!  Of course, I do understand some Thai, but it requires so much concentration to understand that normally on the subway home from class I zone out because it is too difficult for me to follow conversation in Thai.  Having everyone around you speak a language you understood, even if you didn’t necessarily want to listen, was something I hadn’t had in a while!

Parking – is something I never had to do in Asia.  Living in Bangkok you rely on public transportation, walking or taxis and tuk tuks to get you from one place to another.  When you change your habits, you almost forget the old ones…Having to find parking in downtown San Francisco, at a graduation, or at Wal-Mart for that matter, was a complete nuisance and something I had entirely forgotten.  Actually – DRIVING was something I had completely forgotten.  I realize that I have not driven a car for more than two months straight – since I entered college.  At Lehigh I didn’t have a car, and subsequently moved to New York City followed by Bangkok…it turns out I haven’t done much driving or parking ever!

I got sick while home – in addition to my stomach.  It was obvious after the first few days when Dayquil wasn’t enough and I started to sound like I inhaled five packs a day that I would need an antibiotic to wipe this one out.  I went to Walgreens the first day and couldn’t seem to find Z-pack or Cipro in the aisles.  I asked the drug store clerk where I could find the antibiotics for a cold or flu and he looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language and said, “You know you need a prescription for those right?!” and laughed.  Righhhtttt – prescription.  In Thailand – you don’t need a prescription.  You simply walk into a drug store, describe your symptoms, and get whatever they advise, or whatever you ask for.  It takes no more than five minutes to get what you need and be on your way.  However, in the United States – it takes days.  I had to find a doctor that was willing to see me on such short notice, go through all the insurance paperwork, pay the fees, wait in the waiting room, see the doctor, describe my symptoms, have her shove popsicle sticks down my throat, take my temperature and blood pressure…and get that tiny precious piece of paper.  Then…drive back to Walgreens, giddily dumb-blonde grin at the same drug store clerk while I handed over the prescription, and wait…for ten day’s worth of stupid pills.

I really realized that although coming home was very familiar in so many ways, it also was extremely foreign.  I can honestly say that I struggled more in adjusting to returning home than I did coming to Asia.