I have been back home for almost a week now and I have to say it has been wonderful. I no sooner stepped out of the airport into the crisp, frigid air in Seattle than felt like it was finally Christmas time (90 degrees just doesn't cut it for getting me into the holiday spirit). I have had a great time catching up with many of you and it has given me plenty of chances to consider my answer to the question "so how was it?" Since this question is often asked in passing, I usually spit out the words that I think most succinctly describe my experience. So far I have:
-intense
-a growing experience
-challenging
-adventurous
-thought-provoking
While discussing the past five months of my life over dinner with my mom the other day, I came to see that an emerging theme of my time there was truly learning to make the best of any situation, and as Paul says, to be content whatever the circumstances. There were lots of times when my circumstances were less than ideal, but somehow I can look back and honestly say that most of the time I was happy there, and I had a good time. It pushed me to be more emotionally independent, take care of myself, and figure out how to find the resources I needed when no one was around to show me.
Another valuable aspect of the whole thing was that it gave me unique insight into what it's like to be a foreigner. For most of my life I have never really been an outsider. Even when living in Honduras two years ago, I was fairly protected from many of the daily struggles of culture shock because I was living with Americans who knew the place and took care of me. In Nicaragua I gained more of a sense of how darn clueless you can feel sometimes doing things that were once simple to you, whether it's finding the FedEx office or learning the etiquette (or shall I say, lack of) for shoving your way onto a bus or picking up on idiomatic expressions and hand gestures. It has helped me narrow down, a little bit, my future career goals to something in which I am helping immigrants to the US in cultural adaptation. We'll see where that leads.
In the meantime, I am enjoying catching up with friends and family while looking for a place to live in Seattle and some source of income (if you know of anyone looking for a Spanish tutor, let me know!) I am thinking that I might keep blogging from time to time, so if you enjoy my musings, maybe we will keep in touch on the blogosphere.
