Home is Where the Slurpee Is

The other day Maya, Jonah and I were looking at pictures on the computer. We saw some pictures, and then some videos, of the kids playing in the basement of our town home in Alexandria. While we were watching, Jonah said that he missed being home. He'll often say that he wants to go home now. And he calls hotel rooms "our new home".

Later that day or another day, Maya said that she missed being home too. She said there weren't enough toys here. I think she also means that there aren't enough kids here that are her own age (and that speak English). She has mentioned a few times about how excited she is to be going back to school and her friends when we return.

Even Rebecca is feeling homesick. She misses our house and her friends.

I'm the only one in no great rush to get home. Not surprising, because I have the most to lose. Essentially, my freedom. We get home on Saturday, August 30 and I go back to work on Tuesday. Say hello to culture shock.

Here, I wake up, eat, get the kids off to school, take a Spanish lesson or check out a museum, walk around town or go to the park by myself. Then, I go get the kids, eat some lunch, check out a museum, walk around town or go to the park with the kids. Then I come home, kiss my wife and eat some delicious meal that Kumi, our cook, has dished up. I'll let you wonder about the details of my nights.

On weekends, if we aren't going to some resort town where I can lay around in the thermal baths, then we're going to some resort town where I can zip over the tree canopy. Or we're hanging around Quito with no chores to run or responsibilities to worry about besides making sure the kids have food, water and shelter.

To be honest, I usually fail to provide shelter because I always forget to bring the umbrella. There is still something foreign to me about an hour that starts out with a bright-blue, clear sky and ends in downpour. But, I'm batting a thousand on the food and water front.

I never could understand those folks who said that they wouldn't know what to do with themselves in retirement. I was born to be retired.

Rebecca spent a good chunk of her adolescence living overseas (the part where most of our generation sat around watching "The Brady Bunch" on TV every afternoon). And she has always maintained that she wants Maya and Jonah to have the benefit of that experience as well. So, part of the reason that we decided to spend this summer away from the heat and humidity of Washington was as a sort of test run (with us as the guinea pigs) for life overseas.

But, what we have realized is that we actually like our life in Alexandria more than we thought we did. The house, the neighbors, the community, the fact that we can get a Slurpee whenever we want too - it would be a lot to give up.

One of Rebecca's best friends from college moved to London in the last six months with her husband and two young daughters. She recently blogged about the frustration of going to the grocery store and not having the choices that she is used to having in the States (I think the store was out of baking powder). Would that ever happen at Safeway? I think not.

(Column Intermission I - Jonah just walked by and said "Ewww. I think we definitely need to wash my feet today." Why? "Because they smell yucky!")

In Rebecca's friend's blog, which you can view here, Vanessa discusses how much she tends to take for granted in the US. It's true for many of us, I think. Certainly for this family. In considering life overseas, we definitely adopted the "grass is always greener" concept.

And, as much as I rue the fact that we have to go back to the life we came from, I know I will have a greater appreciation of that life. Not reveling in the U.S. necessarily (I'll still laugh at the fool that decides he needs to drive a Hummer around the streets of Alexandria), but reveling in the relationships that I have there and the habits that I have managed to get into in my 38 years that I can indulge.

I suppose that after more time here I'd develop more substantial relationships than saying hi and how ya doin' to the guy that empties the trash bins around the complex. But, to some extent, the cost would be giving up what my family has established in the U.S.

Even that isn't necessarily true. I probably talk to my mom more now in a week than I did when I was in Alexandria. And I know my sister Christine is definitely more up to date on our daily life here than she is on our daily life in Alexandria, because she reads the inanities I post on the blog daily. And I still know exactly how many home runs Alex Rodriquez has, thanks to MLB.com. So, there is no disconnect from a communication perspective.

But there are good things waiting for us at home that we don't have here. And maybe it is just a matter of time before we develop those same good things here and forget about those good things we left behind. But, I think we aren't ready for it.

Anyway, we'll have to contemplate it this Sunday and Monday while we soak in the thermal baths at Papallacta.