When We Get Home

I've had this post in mind for a while now and I think today is a good day to post it because Jason is leaving in the morning. He was originally going to go straight to Disney World when he got back, but he's changed his plans and is going to help with relief efforts in Haiti instead. The man never stops!
Anyway, the other volunteers and I all know that we're going to be a little different when we get home; we've learned a lot and grown a lot and we've lived a lot! Mushy things aside, though (for today), there are a lot of strange things that will have changed. Since our first week here, we've been compiling a list of sorts about these things. Here's a selection:


When we get home...


We’re going to make a lot of people uncomfortable with our new ideas about personal space. (As in, "What personal space?")

We’re going to have low self-esteem because nobody will be calling us beautiful in the streets.

We’ll try to buy rum at the grocery store, and when we finally get to the liquor store, we’ll realize we thought we could buy a mickey with a toonie.

We’re going to look like weirdos while we eat our food because we’ll be absent-mindedly waving away the flies.

We’ll go into rice withdrawal.

We’ll never know which bus to take because nobody will be yelling its destination at us.

We’ll have a hard time responding to the correct pronunciation of our names; “gringa,” “chelita” and “Estefanie” are much more effective.

We’ll say things like, “I’ll meet you at four and if I’m not there, wait at my house,” only to remember that we have these things called phones that make planning a lot easier.

We'll be ready for bed at nine pm, but we won't be able to sleep while the sun's still up.

We'll go to the pharmacy with no money, expecting to get medicine for free.

We'll drive people on campus crazy with our newly-acquired ability to saunter.

We'll burn ourselves a few times before remembering that in Canada, you can actually get hot water out of the hot water tap.

We’ll walk around with enormous wads of cash because we’ve forgotten about the existence of debit cards.

We'll (hopefully) have no trouble losing the weight we've (I've) gained because in Canada, sweet bread creations aren't nearly as cheap, available or delicious.

We'll really miss this place.