As the world turns...

So we're back and the jet lag is beginning to wear off. I slept past 6:30am for the first time today since we've been back and I'm gradually grasping my bearings on where I am in the world. Though I've been spending most of my time the last few days trying to orient myself and have not officially begun to process any of what happened while I was on the other side of the world. I've been in too much shock of the cold and wet weather and the time change and the overwhelming bombardment of questions like "how was it?" and "what did you do?" I've only been able to unemotionally answer with amazings and greats and other such words that do nothing to explain our journey. I feel as though I can't answer either question without sitting down and having hours to describe and discuss. This weekend I attended a wedding where I knew virtually no one but the bride, groom and his mother's immediate family. I spent saturday and sunday meeting new people and being introduced with the phrase "she just got back from Vietnam" attached to my name as we usually do when meeting new people as to create instant subjects of conversation like "this is tom, he's a pediatrist and is origanally from South Dakota". Though my little tidbit of info was of great interest, I became frustrated with the difficulty it was to answer the canned questions that followed in the intended breif introduction period and resorted to shallow meaningless adjectives. I did have a moment of glory today when I was invited in to my brother's high school U.S. History class. I made a short powerpoint highlighting the three main organizations that focused the most directly with post war; Friendship Village, CPI and the Peace Village. His teacher was very interested and pulled his chair right up to the screen and asked a lot of questions. The students for the most part seemed interested and a couple asked questions that gave me the impression I had their attention. It was really cool to do and I was so glad to be able to tell people about my experiances and pass on vital information that may give them something to look into further or just the knowledge that our war there continues even after all these years. I thrived on his enthusiasm and was really excited that he would like me to come back for his class next fall. (Good advertising for break away too...aren't you proud Jill:))

So that's what I have to say on the note of returning. Welcome back gang, Miss you all! Happy to see all those that I missed from the other side of the world and kara, hope you savored every last bite of that lasanga, I got my brownie sunday mmmmm.

Cheers,
Ali