Hey y'all. It's been quite a few weeks since my last post, which is disturbing to me, at least. I'd been posting a new blog at least once a week, more if there was interesting stuff to report. Considering the last few weeks have been exceptionally interesting for me, I'm finally taking time out to write what I need to write.
The transition to life back in the United States is not as difficult as I had imagined. I've had moments where, looking down the sidewalk of a prefabricated town-style shopping center that's too young to have all the stores open, I contemplate when I waded through the river that runs through Las Pozas just to talk to neighbors. Or a coworker asks me to take the trash out to the dumpster, saying, "You're a grown-ass woman, I'm sure you've seen worse than that." And I start to think about the trash pit at the high school in Río Celeste. Yeah, actually. I have.
Despite these weird moments when I slip out of the U.S. and back into what kind of seems like a choose-your-own-adventure alternate reality (if you choose to neuter your dog, turn to page 84), staying busy has made it easy to not feel...well...much of anything. Sadly, this is what my home culture does best. But fortunately, I've got a game plan and this kind of bizarre "work so I'm too tired to think about it" strategy is finally coming to a close. Three jobs is no fun, no matter how fun each job is individually. Learning about restaurants was interesting, but not worthwhile - it turns out I get uncomfortable when people at work show me the marijuana they have floating around in their pockets. After a brief struggle with my conscience, I decided against taking a teller position at a bank and have committed to working full time as assistant manager at the thrift store. Working at the thrift store non-profit continues to give me a sense of purpose and allows me to contribute to something that has an impact on our local and global community. And translating for the company that my brother-in-law works for on the side is great because I get to utilize the skills I've developed in Spanish, pretty much on my own schedule.
So working at the thrift store with some Spanish stuff on the side ain't too shabby. And as life calms down a little, I do find myself reflecting more on Costa Rica instead of blanking out to maintain that insane adaptation/survival mode. Introspection is not always pleasant. Actually, like 80% not pleasant. But it's coming at a good time - having to figure out the ratio of success to failure regarding my almost-year in Peace Corps is a life lesson in itself.
So that's work. And a little bit of what's going on behind the scenes. It's incredibly difficult to feel like I'm writing about anything important or interesting now that I don't have crazy things to relate from warmer climes, but believe me when I say I'm trying my damndest to come up with some good stuff. This is probably going to turn into a blog about thrift and social issues in our local communities. But I hope it's never as boring as that sounds, haha! In the mean time, thanks for following my blog and being intrested enough to take time to read it :)
