Home Sweet Home

Well, the big event in our lives as of late is that we were home for Christmas!! It was such an amazing time filled with family, friends and memories (not to sound too cheesy). The trip overseas is long and pretty exhausting, but the end result (a holiday with our families) was well worth the money and time.
Let’s start at the beginning. We had to work Christmas Eve all the way up until 5:15 when we left for the airport to catch our flight. Everything went smoothly, although the children were on a bit of a sugar high for the majority of the day. We made our flight to LAX. It was a ten hour trip, which now doesn’t seem quite so bad to me. We landed in LA with a nine hour layover, so we decided to get some fresh air and indulge in an In and Out burger (mmm). The first few hours on US soil were full of reverse culture shock. There were so many little things that took my by surprise. I had the mind to document them as they came to me… so here it is:
Oh how wonderful it is to hear the words “Welcome Home” even if they are spoken by a customs guard in the LA airport. I’m having some culture shock: every sign is in English, there are children with blue eyes and blonde hair, I had a full conversation with the man I ordered my burger from and he had no accent, the traffic lights here are uber-short, I can understand every single conversation around me and talk to strangers. The money is all the same color, cars don’t stop when you walk out in front of them… but oh—how sweet it is to be on American soil. How many things I take for granted…
As you can see, I was shell shocked but happy. We spent most of the layover inside a Starbucks, nursing highly caffeinated drinks to keep us running. Our five hour flight to the east coast left around 10 pm. We stumbled into the Charlotte airport at 6 am, bleary-eyed, but happy to see David’s parents. The entire day was an intense struggle for me to stay awake. After a nice gift exchange with David’s family, the house lapsed into inactivity. We had to take a walk and keep ourselves busy to not fall asleep (I’m convinced that staying up and pushing through the day is the best way to get over jet-lag). After a meal of Bolivian stew (made by Mache’s excellent mother), I collapsed into bed… not to wake until hours upon sweet hours later.
The 26th was Christmas with my family. We drove down to Charleston. The last five miles consisted of me squealing at the top of my lungs because of all the sights I’d missed in the past four months. I was practically hyperventilating by the time we pulled into my parents drive. The reunion was every bit as sweet as I’d thought it would be. There were a few tears and much peeing on my dog’s part. We had a great day of catching up and exchanging gifts.




Much of the week was dedicated to seeing friends and buying things we couldn’t get in S.Korea. We stocked up on macaroni and cheese, granola bars, fluoride based toothpaste and Dove chocolates. I also had to spend all of my gift cards that I’d received for Christmas!








All (well, most) of our beautiful and wonderful friends.

The other big event of the trip was Cara’s wedding! As I’m sure you could imagine, the Strauss house was complete chaos that entire week. So many relatives and family friends were all over the place. David became completely engrossed with some photographer friends who came into town and gave him some tips on the trade. He got some really great shots of his sister’s wedding, which was great practice for him.




We had to leave the wedding reception early to make it to the airport (boo!). The travel was relatively smooth, although we landed in the beginnings of a blizzard in Incheon. The snow was everywhere and it wouldn’t let up the entire day. We had to go straight from the airport to school to teach, but fortunately kindergarten classes were cancelled for the day due to the intense weather. I’ve been able to make it through the day without jet-lagging too badly… I slept 11 hours collectively on the 24 hour trip back here. I think that’s a record without sleeping pills for me!


It’s a bit overwhelming to be back. Knowing I have 8 more months before seeing (most of) my family and friends again. 8 more months of long work weeks and foreign culture at my doorstep. I know it will go by fast—but I think that if it’s possible, going home has perhaps made me even more homesick. Sigh. Oh well.