Waiting, in more ways than one.
Life has been very interesting since coming back from Germany. Seeing my family after almost a year was amazing, I love them so much and I can’t believe how much they’ve changed in the time I was gone. The second youngest boy is almost six feet tall and has a deeper voice than I do and he constantly steals my tennis shoes because we now wear the same size…this is something I am not accustomed to since my shoes usually look like boats compared to everyone else’. I got to see the oldest girl in my family graduate from high school and that was also pretty strange and wonderful.
I think I underestimated the impact that one year can have on a person’s life and outlook. A year doesn’t seem like a long time but when I look back and realize I lived in the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Germany and traveled and stayed in at least ten more countries in that time, it seems like a lot longer. I went from a new life in Germany, back to where my life started in a tiny Texas town and even though I’ve been home for three months, I still feel like a stranger in my own country. That sounds so melodramatic but I really do. It’s the little things, like having to drive everywhere (without AC, mind you) and being bombarded by political adds and signs at every turn. Fast food franchises and malls stand where cathedrals and cafes stand in my mind and most of my countrymen wear their pride and inflexible attitudes like medals of honor. Here it’s almost a sin to think differently than everyone else and the first week I got back, someone actually looked at me with genuine concern on there face and said, “I bet you’re so glad to be back from that socialist country!” I’m not a socialist but Lord, neither am I on board with the Wal-Mart/McDonalds culture we Americans have created.
I moved to Austin about two weeks ago and I got a job waiting tables at one of Austin’s many iconic restaurants. I like it so far but it feels unreal, like I’m going through the motions, just filling time and waiting for more direction. I’m really working on finding joy in everyday, meaning and worth in every circumstance but it is so stinking hard sometimes. My goal is to work on music while I’m here and that’s why I decided to get a job with some flexibility. I’m working on a CD of my favorite hymns right now and I’m hoping that I’ll be able to pay off at least a chunk of my student loans with the sales and be free to go back to missions in Germany soon.
In other news, I am addicted to the show, “Game of Thrones” and I’m anxiously awaiting the third season! I’m enjoying the random weirdness of Austin for the most part and trying to cope with it’s awful traffic, in my moving sauna of a car. I’ve picked up learning French again and I’m hoping for a German Rosetta stone to magically make it’s way onto my computer so I can learn more German too. Anyway, I’ve got to go into work in a few minutes, so I’m gonna end this post but hopefully I’ll have some funny stories about waiting tables to write about soon. Working in a restaurant never fails to provide an endless array of ridiculous circumstances and people.
