Back in the U.S. of A.

So what was it like being back in the US of A after being in India for 10 ½ months? Oddly not that odd. I thought I would be really freaked out by it but I wasn’t. I landed and got myself a cuppa Dunkin Donuts coffee and it was like I’d never left (seriously, first thing I did was get a coffee, soooo good). But I do have a few thoughts:
It should be illegal for a transatlantic flight to not have personalized TV screens. I slept on the flight from Delhi to Amsterdam which was a really nice plane with the indiv TVs but was awake most of the time from Amsterdam to Boston only to discover it was a super old plane with the TV screens in the middle and some weird movies. Thank goodness for iPods. (aside, I thought I had it tough flying for 8 ½ hours then flying for 7 ½ hours but the guy across the aisle from me had been on a plane for 12 hours before the second flight – yikes!)
I really miss flat screen TVs. I had gotten used to my little 13 inch TV over here but man, flat screens are the way to go. I suppose it is a good thing that I almost never watch TV over here so I don’t really notice.
I felt guilty for having laughed at the Indians being cold in the winter because I was soooo cold for the first few days. Of course going from 100 to 60 is quite a drop. Luckily it warmed up later in the week and I was comfy.
The one thing I really did notice that kept weirding me out was how much space there was everywhere. On the roads, empty; on the streets, empty; even walking through New York City I felt like there was so much space. There are so many people in India that even when it isn’t crowded there are still lots of people and I have totally adapted to that. Times that before would have seemed crowded to me didn’t feel crowded at all. It was nice actually. One morning I went for a walk on a trail and for a little while I was the only person and that really freaked me out. I cannot remember ever being completely alone (except in my apartment) in India. When I move back that will take me a while to get used to.
And finally…I have definitely adapted to the Indian way of driving. We got stuck in traffic and I thought it was very silly that everyone didn’t just use the shoulder to get through things faster. I’ll definitely have to watch that when I leave because I’ll end up getting pulled over and I don’t think that “but this is okay in India” will get me out of a ticket.
And really finally...I enjoyed catching up on food I missed. Like lasagna, a burger, bagels, lobster, etc., etc., and, of course some good beers. Yummmmm.