Sunday, August 26, 2012

Settling back in

Well, I'm back from a whirlwind trip to Texas.  Actually, I've been back for over a week, but when I arrived back in Japan, Ethan started school, I started classes, Takuya and I had a live, blah, blah, blah, busy, busy, busy.

Being back in Texas was awesome.  It was great to be reunited with family (and dogs) after two years.





I thought I'd feel some reverse culture shock while I was back in the States, but I didn't at all.  I fell back into American life with relative ease.  It helped that there was Mexican food a-plenty.  And oh, did I eat it.


I ate some kind of Mexican food almost every day I was back, haha.  And look at all that CHEESE!!!

I was also able to meet Mom's doctors and nurses and went with her to the clinic for her chemotherapy treatments.  They were all incredibly kind, and knew that mom was in the right hands.  She's doing great, by the way.  Being able to see her in person showed me that the chemo is working and that she's still strong.  What a relief!  I tried to help out as much as I could while I was there - I helped plant some flowers and plants in the front yard, and cleaned out my old bedroom.  That's where I found this:


In the closet, my huge, gaudy, homecoming mum from 1994.  I went with a boy named Heath.  Haha, I wonder what he's doing now.  Anyway, this went into the trash, much to my mom's disappointment.  You can't hang onto everything.

.....Except those bowling trophies in the background from when I was in a bowling league in 1992.  Mom said I can't throw away those.

The two weeks went by way too fast, and before I knew it, I was back on an airplane to Sapporo, where it had decided to become incredibly humid.  *sigh*, I'm missing the dry Texas air already!