It's about time...

Wow. First off, I'd like to comment on the hideous color scheme of this blog. It shows up as a soft, dull yellow on my laptop. I turned on the PC when I got home and I was immediately blinded by the sun. So much for my attempts at being patriotic.

I've suddenly become inspired to blog while reading a book called "The Clandestine Diary of an Ordinary Iraqi" by Salam Pax. He's an Iraqi blogger who got a lot of attention for his civilian, insightful blog during/after the Iraq invasion in 2003. It's really good and very eye-opening. He's an awesome writer and his humor/wit cracks me up. Read it!

So it's been almost three weeks since I've been back to America and already my time in Ghana seems like a distant dream. It's been weird being back, with pretty big culture shock. I walked into Walgreens on day two to make a quick bathroom run and was on one hand completely shocked by the accessibility of alllll this stuff neatly categorized in aisles, with set price tags, with such a variety to choose from, all the while being absolutely appalled by the prices. I think I was in Ghana Cedi currency for the first two weeks and refused to make many purchases, and if I did i couldn't do it without cringing a little inside.

It's nice to walk around invisibly. And man, coming home to mom's home-cooked meal was awesome. I'm still getting over all the nice cars on the road and all the iphones, ipads, ipods, i-whatever they have now. It also took me a few days to get over the left-hand rule. It's culturally disrespectful to receive or give items with your left hand because it's the "defiled" hand. I went to Kaiser when I got back and was signing a few forms and just before I had time to transfer my form from my left to my right, the receptionist took it from my left and I went "o! sorry..." pause. hm. inteeerrresssting...

Crossing the street has been a treat. In Ghana, (and in many other countries it turns out) pedestrians don't have right of way. It's like the live version of Frogger. Cross the street, if you dare. I walked out of 99 Ranch and just stood on the side of the road waiting for all the cars to pass before I deemed it safe to cross. Now imagine this: cars STOPPED! After you. No no, after you. Really, i insist. Well, alright.

It was so nice coming home. Minus the really cold weather that welcomed me back. "This is warm! It's pretty warm, really." Please. Now that the sun's out and shining you all are running for cover while i'm outside in the middle of the day helping the parental units tame some wild daisy bushes hardly breaking a sweat. hah. take that California.

Roi came back too. She spent a month in Guatemala and then some more time in Mexico. And my dad just returned from a trip to China. Ema is back from Italy as well, so it's been really cool having loads to share and loads to learn about other cultures.

Ah. inspiration depleted.