Reverse Culture Shock

I’ve officially been home for a little more than a week, and I’m already experiencing reverse culture shock. There are things that I never thought about that are so entirely different from Ecuador that I’m constantly either annoyed or awed.

Such as:

• 38° is cold. I do not understand how everyone here thinks it’s not.

• I can now flush toilet paper. For so long it’s been drilled into my head that I can’t, that I feel like I’ll get caught whenever I do. My mom and sister have been subjected to frequent whoops from the bathroom because of it.

• I have realized that traffic lights are by far the most inefficient method of controlling traffic. Traffic circles make so much more sense. I never thought I’d say that, but there it is.

  

• People really do use the elevator to go to the second floor. I suppose I get annoyed because at 8,370 feet above sea level, I practically climbed a mountain and literally climbed 135 steps in order to get to my classes every day. (Unless I took the bus, in which case it was only 85 steps.)
  

  

• Everything is sweet here. I went to a restaurant the other day with my extended family and realized that my sister couldn’t taste the way the breaded shrimp was sickeningly sweet. She’s used to it; I’ve gotten used to salty things being salty (and just salty) and sweet things being significantly less sweet than they are here.

• I’ve come to the conclusion that lemon juice on my popcorn just doesn’t taste the same as lime juice.

• My mom has never had a tree tomato, and I have the niggling feeling that it’ll be hard to find a tomate de arbol anywhere around here. (Any suggestions?)

• There are no palm trees here. In Ecuador, it was a weird feeling not seeing pines. Apparently I got used to that, because now I feel like there’s something missing when I don’t see palm trees.

• Potholes, while not found exclusively in the States, were not something I missed.

• It’s fun to drive my own car, even if I do have to sit in traffic.

• Speaking of which, it’s actually nice to see orange construction cones again, as opposed to ones striped with black and sickly yellow. (Another thing I never thought I’d say: “Orange construction cones! How lovely!” Traveling abroad does weird things to you.)

• Air pressure was something I never noticed until there wasn’t any. Now it feels like I’m being squashed wherever I am.

  
  

  All of which, of course, mean that I'm ecstatic to be home, while at the same time missing Ecuador quite a lot.