Moving back to your country - or trying not to lose your mind over 60 days!

After 2 1/2 years in Warsaw, Poland, our family moved back to VA over the holidays. After a two glorious weeks in warm, sunny, Florida, we made our way back to chilly Virginia where an ice storm was expected in the coming days.

This moving back thing is actually harder than moving away. I had read this previously, but didn't quite understand why moving back to your own country would be so difficult. Visiting seemed so easy. I felt so at home. It also took place in Florida where I am a native and know most of the state like the back of my hand.

Now, we are back in Virginia where I am not a native and have not lived here for 6 years. It feels every bit as foreign as Warsaw did initially. This area has changed alot in 6 years. I am completely disoriented and my GPS, which I relied on in Warsaw, is not as up to date on the new roads in Virginia. I feel nauseated everytime I get into the car mostly because after that trip to and from FL I have no desire to be in a car.

Going to the store is as overwhelming as it was shopping in Warsaw for the first time. This time, the problem is choices (with price coming in a close second!). There are so many (in English) that I find myself overwhelmed. I long for forced choice! Everything looks different and I keep trying to turn on lights outside the doors instead of inside. I pull doors instead of pushing them. There is certainly some readjustment to be done. We stopped at Disney World for one day on our way back up here and I felt more at home there with all the foreigners speaking all their different languages than I do now.

Moving back home you receive no support other than from those arranging the delivery of your household effects and that takes forever. There is no housekeeper to clean my house or do my laundry or watch my 2 year old. A second job is required for those luxuries including preschool for that 2 year old which I am fervently working on as I write. You don't get a welcome home packet with crucial information like schools, doctors, vets, etc. Nor do you get your home and utilities provided and paid for by a third party. You are truly on your own now. Good luck and welcome home!

There are certainly lots of pluses to being back. The best by far is hearing English or Spanish spoken everywhere. Being able to access all those services I mentioned above without having to learn a new language or bringing an interpreter is a relief. Living abroad gives you a certainly love and appreciation for your home country that you would not otherwise have or understand.

America is far from perfect and I am sure I could make a list of everything that is done better in Europe (focus on family, first and foremost). But I am so grateful to live in a country that has wide open roads, where I don't have to do mathematical equations to convert everything to the Metric system (although i think the entire world should have a uniform system), where the bureaucracy is not as overwhelming and where you can take care of much of that bureaucratic stuff on-line, where people stop at intersections (stop sign or not!), where you don't have to pay for your plastic bags or bag your own groceries or even leave a coin deposit for your shopping cart, where I don't have to weigh produce, where parking spaces are clearly marked and sidewalks are meant for walking (even if I feel urges to jump on that sidewalk from time to time), where people know what a parade is and where to stand for one, and even, as overwhelming as it all is right now, where there is variety in just about everything.

Yes, I think it is safe to say, I love being home!