Transition

A few weeks before I left France, a friend who is older and wiser sat me down to explain what transition is all about.  She has been through several continent changing transitions herself so she has lived through the chart she gave me.  Numerous times I have been thankful for her taking the time to do that.  It has helped me know that what I'm experiencing is normal.  I've pulled that chart out several times as I've tried to understand what I'm feeling.  As I read through the list that includes "statusless, chaos, anxiety, uncertain of position or how to respond..." I can understand why transition is hard.  I shouldn't expect anything else.  Still, it isn't a lot of fun to actually go through.  I talked with a couple who lived in Europe for over 20 years and have been back here for 7.  They told me it takes 3 years - and it's a good thing to know that up front.  Hopefully it will get better before that.

I had two experiences this week that reminded me that I'm not in Europe any more.  On a rainy day I decided to take the bus to school.  I had no problem getting there but it wasn't until I walked out of class that I realized that I had no idea where to catch the bus going in the other direction.  On the way I had been dropped off on a one-way street so obviously the return trip wouldn't be at the same place.  It seems like there are hundreds of bus stops in the downtown area and none of them (at least where I was looking) give any information about what buses actually stop there.  I ended up walking and checking the internet when I got home.  Hopefully the next time I'll be able to get it right.  I do need to figure it out before the snow flies.

When I went to the grocery store this week I had "juice" on my list.  I walked down every aisle that has drinks in it and didn't find any juice.  It's not with the tea, coffee, mixes, sport drinks.  It's not in the same aisle as the water and pop.  Then I remembered that juice doesn't come in a six pack of liter size boxes in this country.  I found what I wanted in the refrigerated section.  The only problem is that I wasn't able to stock up.