Coming Home

I come home next week and am really looking forward to seeing eveyone! I have missed my family and friends and some of the things you find predominantly in America or in Tri-cities. I realize I will be going through another culture shock coming home. I was talking to the missionaries here and a couple of things they mentioned is that when you go home street signs and billboards seem like they are yelling at you and you hear conversation you do not need to know about. In Poland, we live a life of little communication outside of our English bubble. When we walk down the street and see signs we cannot read them...except for a word here and there...and when we go out to eat there are conversations all around us but we do not understand what they are saying. I am not used to being silent so much..haha I know. I am enthusiastic about what I have been doing these past four months and have to bottle that enthusiasm for the sake of those listening. I have taken thousands of pictures to remember the places I have been and to share them with others but more importantly, I feel that I lived the moments and saw the immense beauty of parts of Europe. I have been excited, scared, full of energy, dead tired, saddened, disappointed, anxious, fulfilled, I have met new people, said goodbye to friends, found my smile and ate lots of strange food. I have adapted to this way of life and I think it will be really hard coming home and getting back on a schedule and seeing the same things each day. There are so many things to do and people to see, but I need to remember not to get back into the same pattern as before of overextending myself and trying to please others all the time and still have a place for me. These next seven days are filled with two emotions: excitement to be coming home and sadness of leaving this life I feel I was just beginning. I started packing up yesterday and it is really hard to do! I will not miss the city trams running all night long outside my window or going to the grocery store lost because I cannot even read the food labels. I have learned so much since I have been here and I will look back years from now and hopefuly say, "That experience was a turning point in my life."