Category Archives: Adventures at Home

26 Jul

RCS

Been getting the house arranged, roof planned, whatnot. The roofing starts tomorrow; today I need to go to Home Depot or an equivalent and order the materials. So far, I’ve been pretty successful avoiding stores and/or general interaction with strangers. My first time in the grocery store, I almost started whimpering. I can’t really explain why.

I’m also suffering from sticker shock. On Saturday, I was gonna work in the house until about 2:00 and then go to the sushi box for lunch. I walked down there, got into the restaurant, looked at the menu, and walked right out. A chicken teriyaki lunch (which doesn’t really even fill you up) costs $7.95!

Emily (Eileen’s taller bridesmaid) came back from Chile on Sunday. Yesterday, she called to say hi, and then came over to help out with the house a little. I ate dinner at the Whitesel’s last night. It was really comforting to talk with a friend who was experiencing the same sort of reverse culture shock.

Tember’s back at the house, helping out, but she’s bored. She’s suffering a little reverse culture shock herself.

21 Jul

Chalk one up for the third world.

I left Ecuador at 9:40 am, Wednesday. I got home at 5:30 am, Thursday. My plane was delayed out of Miami, then we sat on the runway for an hour and a half, then we were in a holding pattern before entering Chicago. I got into Chicago at 11:00, too late for a plane, bus, or rental car (which were sold out).

On the plane, I was sitting next to the only other person to travel from Ecuador to Milwaukee. We teamed up, using her cell phone, to call American Airlines, rental places, etc. After learning that we would be stuck in Chicago until a 1:00 flight the following day, we got an offer from Will to come come pick us up. We accepted.

He got to O’Hare at 3:30. We got to Mom’s house at 5:30. I called Eileen and then slept.

Total time it took to get to Ecuador and back through American Airlines, including delays, layovers, and flight time: 7 days.

And they call this the “developed world.”