A Summation

So I have been home for an entire week now. And as my friend Michelle mentioned on Twitter about her trip to Spain, I think I experienced reverse culture shock.

It was odd, walking through the airport and saying “excuse me” rather than “pardonne” or “thank you” instead of “merci.”

Hearing English and being able to understand every word of the conversations around me was a bittersweet feeling. I no longer had to embrace the challenge of having to figure out French. But understanding everything in my own tongue was refreshing – it triggered an emotion of comfort I had never experienced. It was funny, when we were in France and how quickly my ears could pick up an English conversation from across a room or the street or when we were in England and I could hear an American accent from a mile away. Though I love the beautiful language that is French, it is nice to relax a little and not have to constantly be giving all my attention to understanding or generating another language.

The entire time I was in Europe, I never had a burger or French fries or any fast food of any kind. In all honesty, a fast food restaurant is hard to find. In the French airport, there were little kiosks, selling macaroons and sweet French delicacies, and a cafeteria-like food court with different fresh-food options that you had to walk to find. But as soon as we rolled into the Atlanta airport, I noticed right off as we exited customs, a Burger King and another fast food restaurant. And the fast food convenient restaurants like McDonald’s and Chick-fil-a and Wendy’s lined the walk to the gates. It was ridiculous. No wonder Americans are fat!

(we did, however, find an All-American Fried Chicken!)

One thing I did miss that I didn’t realize I missed was Southern sweetness. As soon as we started rolling through customs, the officer struck up a conversation with me, and almost all the Americans and airport officials I encountered became my best friend! I missed striking up friendly conversation with random strangers! And that is something you don’t do except in the South, and I truly missed it with even knowing it for the 10 days we were gone. And it made me realize, no matter how much I love other places, no matter how far I travel, I’m always gonna call this place home, because after it all, I’m still a small-town girl who enjoys the hustle and bustle of the big city, but whose heart belongs in the slow South.

And one last thing. Not gonna lie, I don’t miss the unisex bathrooms.