Some Getting Used To

Life in America takes some getting used to and I'm getting there, slowly.

Last week I was at the Sonic drive thru (who knew they had drive thrus?) and the lady said 'how would you like those burgers?' I took a second and then said 'well...um...I guess medium well?' The lady was really nice and said 'oh no sweetheart. What do you want on them?' and I said 'Are there choices?' And she was confused and said 'of course. mayo, mustard, tomatoes, stuff like that.' And I said 'um...I don't know, I guess I want all of it?' She was so sweet, she just said 'sweetheart, why don't you just pull up to the window and we'll get you all settled.' She didn't think I was strange, at least she didn't say that or anything.

It's not that I don't remember what you're supposed to put on American hamburgers. It's that I haven't been able to choose what I wanted on my food in a restaurant since I went to Africa. They don't have special orders in Sudan. I tried a few times to order my hamburger without eggs but they would just look at me like I was crazy and hand me a burger with eggs on it. I got so used to just accepting whatever I was given and picking things off later that I was caught off guard when I was given the opportunity to choose whatever I wanted on my burger...and then to not even be able to order without making some sort of choice, now that's just crazy. I didn't know what to do. Top that off with the fact that I was distracted by one of my many new favorite country songs on the radio and it led to a bit of an awkward situation. Thank goodness the lady was so kind and helpful.

I still haven't used an ATM or a credit card yet. I do get some strange looks from cashiers every once in a while, especially when I pay in exact change. But, in my defense, I have been conditioned to expect that stores will NOT have change. There were several times in the Sandbox when I couldn't buy something because the guy didn't have change. Even one time in particular when I was willing to not get any change back, just give him the extra money so I could get what I needed and he refused to sell it to me because he didn't have any change. Talk about frustrating. But you can just imagine the looks I get at target when I'm counting out my cash to the penny while everyone else just swipes their card.

Another thing I'm working on getting used to is this busyness thing. Everyone here is just so busy. I'm not all that busy and I don't particularly want to be. This week there was one day where I did dishes, laundry, dropped off pictures at sams, sat at starbucks for 2 hours, and grocery shopped and when I got home I thought 'wow, that was a productive day. I can't believe I managed to get all that done in one day.' Then I thought about it and really, in the American scheme of things, that was nothing. What I did is what everyone else does in the evenings after they've already been at work all day long.

I distinctly remember when I first got to the Sandbox I had the exact same struggle with not being busy. I would make up reasons to go places just to do something. First it was 'oh, I have an hour free, I'll just go to the market.' Then it came to 'oh, I have an hour free, I'll just walk a mile to the market'. After a few weeks of pretty persistent heat exhaustion I realized that it just wasn't feasible to always be busy in 100's+ and I got used to taking things a little more slowly.

People keep asking me if I'm bored and I guess it makes sense that people should assume that I am since I don't have a job and I don't have a schedule like everyone else. However I think most people don't understand what true boredom is. I mean, until you've been stuck in your house for 5 days straight without being allowed to leave (without satellite and with tricky electricity and water) you just won't understand. I actually find it pretty impossible to be bored around here, what with all the malls and starbucks and parks and libraries around I don't understand how you could be! I guess a couple of years in Africa gave me a bit of a forced appreciation for the simpler things in life but I'm pretty content with that now.

That's it for now. I guess my life isn't really all that entertaining these days but hopefully things will pick up after a while. Love y'all!!!