When you return back to your own culture after being in a different one, its something different than the "culture shock" you experience in a new place. Because nothing is particularly shocking, per se. I lived in America for 22 years before I moved to Uganda, so I'm familiar with how things work over here.... its just a lot to be completely submerged into it after being in such a foreign land. So it feels a bit more like "culture whiplash."
But I'm back and adjusting.... and thought I'd share a bit of my life.
This is my new house in Austin that I share with my lovely roommate, Kristy.
To state the obvious, our yard is in despicable shape. This is because of the drought going on in Texas right now; I've returned to triple digit heat and wild fires (no joke). We need some serious rain to recover. But besides that, the house is little but cozy and I love it.
I've been painting furniture, hanging pictures, rearranging sofas, sewing throw pillows, and doing various home improvement projects to keep myself busy. Because right now, all I have is time on my hands. Home-improvement is time-consumption project #1.
Keep-Cameron-from-losing-her-mind-due-to-boredom project #2 is a little cuter. Her name is Kona and she is a 2 month old Australian Shepherd/Catahoula mix puppy. Kristy and I adopted Kona last weekend and are enjoying her presence in the house oh-so-much. She gets super hyper-active around 7:00am and 10:00pm, but during the in between times she's a cuddly, sassy smarty-pants. Seriously, I'm a little afraid of this dog's intelligence level. Kona has already figured out that if she brings a chew toy with her when she sits by the couch, we'll be a lot less likely to suspect her of gnawing on the sofa-cover (which has become her favorite pastime). Needless to say, teaching Kona to do things like walk on a leash have been great time-fillers.
Unemployment project #3: pretend like you're employed. I just started volunteering for a start-up fair trade, organic clothing company called Good & Fair. I'm helping the founder organize his books and inventory and ordering systems and whatnot. So this afternoon I brought home the company laptop to do some work on QuickBooks, and I'll probably spend a good portion of the day tomorrow in a coffee shop, pretending like I'm working on a deadline of some sort.
Most-important-time-filling project #4: find a real job. I've probably applied for at least 20 jobs in the past week and a half. Now I'm in the oh-so-fun waiting phase to see if I've landed any interviews.... And of course during this waiting phase, I'll be hunting around even more for open positions. I try to apply for at least a couple jobs a day. Hopefully some one will want to hire me soon.
I'm not one of those people that can just sit idle.... I get too antsy. Hence the unemployment projects.
But these projects don't mean that I didn't watch the entire season of Happy Endings last week. Calling that "time well-spent" might be pushing it, but I have to make the most of all this free time somehow.
We'll see how long I have to keep coming up with unemployment projects.... so for now: to be continued...
