Tag Archives: Return

Reentry

I have arrived safely at home in Pennsylvania after my six week trip to Japan.  I think the hardest thing so far was the time adjustment.  There is a thirteen hour time difference between my Pennsylvania hometown and Tokyo, Japan.  I left at 11am from Narita airport in Japan and I arrived at the JFK airport at 11am on the same day.  The twelve hours I spent on the plane seemingly disappeared. It was an interesting experience.  Technically, I had been up since 5am (when I woke up to get ready to go to the airport), had a twelve hour flight at 11am and, on Japan’s time, gotten off the plane at 11pm.  Then there was the three hour drive home.  When I got home at 2pm, I felt like it really was 1am since I was still on Japan time.  Over the next few days, I found myself being hungry at 10pm and 2am (around breakfast and lunch time for me in Japan, but very inconvenient times for America).  When dinner time came around (5, 6 or 7 pm), I couldn’t even be hungry if I tried.   I woke up at 5am everyday and could not help but to fall asleep at 4:30pm every day.  It took me about a full week to get adjusted back to America’s Eastern Time. 

Getting home, back to familiar places and familiar places, is nice.  However, I find myself missing the familiar view of the Sangubashi skyline when I wake up, and the easy access to far away locations via a widespread train system, and (of course) the great shopping.  Coming home made me aware of what I would miss about Japan, but it also made me aware of what I missed about home.  I realized I missed the openness of America – where people basically walk around with their hearts on their sleeves (compared to Japan that is).  I also missed the chivalry of America.  Yes, I am generalizing, but you won’t see a Japanese man offer his seat to a woman on a crowded train, however, you will see an American man offer his seat to a standing woman.  Small things like that, that we take for granted, are just not a part of the culture in Japan.  Therefore, arriving back home has been bittersweet for me.  I’ll miss the friends I made in Japan, but I am happy to see my friends here in Pennsylvania.  I’ll miss all I was able to do in Tokyo, but I am happy to be able to sit on the farm, feed the cows, go to the drive-ins here at home.  I’ll miss all the tempura, A-grade sushi, and yakiniku; but I am happy to be back to Red Robbin burgers and Sal’s pizza.  You can never have it all, but I was glad I at least got to experience it!

Overall, studying in Japan was a great experience for me and I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything – I’ll deal with jetlag any day for another trip to Japan!  But now I’m ready for my next vacation before college starts up again! =)

 


Location: Orefield, Pennsylvania

Back to America

After one last day at a beautiful beach in Zanzibar, I started my 40 hours of travel home on Friday morning.

We first took a ferry from Zanzibar back to Dar where we caught our 4:50pm flight to Dubai. The ferry pretty much sucked. We were going so fast and against the current so the boat was flying all over the place. We had 4 of our students get sick and about 5 more feeling like they were going to be sick. It wasn’t just us either. People all over the ferry were in rough shape. It was kind of amusing in a way but really it was just bad. To top it off, after being on the boat for 2 hours of rough riding we had to go straight to the airport – no showers or refreshment. I bet we all looked good!

The flight to Dubai was alot better than the flight in from Dubai. The plane was bigger and nicer. We had a couple hours of layover in Dubai. That airport is insane. Especially after spending my trip in the rural villages of Tanzania, the upscale, flashy ways of Dubai airport seemed ridiculous to me. We left Dubai for New York at 2:00 am – Dubai time. And after 14 hours of flight we landed in New York at 7:30am. From there I had a longer layover till my flight to Pittsburgh at 2pm.

I was a mix of emotions. Through all the travel I felt fine. Being in the crazy Dubai airport made me a bit uneasy – all that flashy stuff seems silly when you put it into perspective. Through the flights I felt good, focusing on the next leg of travel. My first episode came on the last flight from New York to Pittsburgh. As we were flying into the airport, I was looking out the window and noticed how huge some of the houses are, and how much open land we have. Add in my fatigue and travel-weariness and I was almost in tears. How lucky we are to live in America! My mood improved when I made it off the plane and into the airport. I was very excited to see my family, give gifts and tell all my stories.

The first evening passed by smoothly for me. I was content to be home and happy to be reunited with my family. The next few days however, I have been having a harder time. These new emotions have surprised me. I expected to have some culture shock and homesickness when arriving in Tanzania – but when arriving home? I never expected it to be harder to come home. And for me it has been harder. A lot harder. I felt pretty comfortable in Tanzania. I had a few moments of homesickness and discomfort here and there but I was never that bad. Being back in America has been hard. I know I shouldn’t feel guilty for the way I live but I do. At this point I don’t know how to look at our lives and not feel guilty or wasteful or ignorant. The differences between America and East Africa are bigger than me.  The two places are two completely different worlds. Going from one world to another in a matter of days is hard to adjust to. I’m sure in a few days I will find it easier. The improvement between today and yesterday has already been extreme. I look forward to feeling comfortable again but at the same time, I don’t want to loose this outlook. I don’t want to go back to the way it was- spending money on useless things, being wasteful and secluding myself into work and school. Hopefully, with some thought and effort I will be able to integrate some of the Tanzanian qualities into my own life.

The study abroad trip was amazing. I can’t stop thinking about going back. I don’t know how or when but I am defiantly persistent in making my return to East Africa. The thought of spending my summers or years after graduation at home is really unappealing. I have the travel bug. I’ve seen another new place and now I want to see everything. The whole world lies out there – I’m itching to see it all!

I promised a photo blog entry and it will be coming soon. We all traded pictures so I literally have thousands to go through, transfer and edit. But soon enough I will post them. Expect a couple or entries too. I’ll try to post as I go through them, or else it would be a while for the whole group.


Location: Murrysville, Pennsylvania