America: So after a good bit of traveling
I finally made it the good ol’ US of A! Nate picked me up at the airport with
about 5 layers to bundle myself with and a milkshake to go-talk about a good
way to be picked up J
I got home on Wednesday night, the night before Thanksgiving and was very
warmly greeted by my awesome family! It was soooo good to see them!
Thanksgiving morning came early and we headed out with the sun to make it to
the York Turkey Trot for a Linde tradition of running with all of cousins
before we eat. It was a solid-and very cold-race with maybe 20+ runners who
were Lindes or came with a Linde! We ate the day away after that and it was D
to the E to the LICIOUS! Of course, football was played as well and a game of
tug-o-war of Lindes vs non-Lindes. Hahaha I couldn’t tell you who won either
one but I watched with about 5 layers on from the sidelines. I came out with
one jacket on but within 20 min as relatives kept looking at me shivering, they
would bring me another winter jacket to put on, guess I was more acclimated to
Kenyan weather than I thought. The rest of the familys Thanksgiving break was
filled with family and food-a most excellent combination! I also got to see
BekBek hand over her Miss Solanco crown and perform one last time, which was
pretty awesome since I missed last year when she was crowned. I spend the next
few days seeing a few friends, running and just hanging out with the family.
From Thursday to Sunday I went on a college tour with Sarah. We started off
seeing BekBekBek at Messiah and went to a cool church singing thing, Power
House, after eating at the cafeteria and we ran in the morning when she was at
class. It’s a solid college and seems like the perfect fit for little Beks even
if it still a bit weird to think that she’s now starting her 2nd
semester already! I was really happy I got to see her there and meet a few of
her friends. We left in the morning, the 3 of us, for PSU to see Stephen. He
lives in a house with a few other Navigator guys who all see pretty darn cool.
We hung out in his house and cooked lunch and dinner together while also
playing a few board games. I also got to witness some of their talents as the
practiced for the talent show that evening. Beks and Stephen did a ring toss
type thing, Sarah played her violin and Stephen along with 2 of his roomies
saying a trio mashup including Davey Jones and Amazing Gace. It was hilarious!!
Nate came to pick me up that night to travel back to JC so I could be there for
Madrigal the next day. I was able to run with 3 JCXC girls in the morning and
then go on a date with Nate for the first time in over 14 months! We ate some
super delish Standing Stone sandwiches and then headed out in the cold to
explore town. We walked to my old church and saw the nativity scene walk around
display and then afterwards we found something else awesome in town. We
wandered around ready to head back to watch a Christmas movie before getting
ready for the evening when we realized that Huntingdon was having a Christmas
parade! Say what?! We had no idea that existed but it lasted between 20 and 30
min and we saw 2 HS bands, some police cars, floats with various Christmas
themes and someone dressed as a moose with no explanation. It was pretty random
and pretty great. Our day ended with Madrigal as we ate with 3 other couples
and a JCXC freshman at Mimis, the classiest place in Huntingdon before hanging
out at the dance and the off campus where Nate lives with 2 other guys. It was
fun night to dress up and be fashionable in a way I hadn’t been in a looong
time! I had gotten a dress made in Kenya with a tie made from the bottom of my
dress so we matched perfectly-I loved it. The college tour ended with us
driving back to PSU with our friend Kate to see Beka and a JCXC guy, Park, run
a half marathon. It was a lot of fun because we ended up having 5 people to
cheer for (Bek, her 2 friends, Park and Lugg (both JCXC). We drove back to good
ol’ Solanco after the race and it was good we left right away because it ended
up snowing a good bit-so much that Solanco had a snow day the next day! My last
few days in America was great since my family had a snow day and delay so I got
more time to spend with them.
Overall, I ate lots of delish food, saw
lots of family and friends and although I was in shock at times with parts
overwhelming-it was a grrrreat trip! The most shocking part for me was being in
Walmart. There is one store here called ‘Nakumatt’ which is bigger and has a
fair amount of stuff in it-but it is not really comparable to Walmart. The
grocery store was also a bit overwhelming so I only went once with a list in my
hand. The differences in food color, freshness, size and price is crazy! The
other thing that blew me away was how I’d forgotten how many different
varieties of one food type there are. For example, in Walmart I saw 10
different types of Oreos-how and why?! Or how can there be an entire looong
aisle of cereal? I cant even buy cereal in Sipili. I have to travel 1.5 hours
to my banking town and then I have 3 options-all expensive though so I never
buy it. Another thing I noticed was transportation. I was surprised at how many
cars travel with one or two people in them and how much I appreciate the public
transportation available in Kenya. Some days I don’t but most I do. The matatus
(14-16 passenger vans) wait to fill up before they leave so that they are
always traveling with the maximum capacity (even if that means when I travel to
Sipili-25+ people in the van). It’s also nice that I can get public
transportation to anywhere in the country-even small towns like mine have it
available. Lastly, it was crazy how many things had changed in the past 14
months. My family redid the floors, added a walk-in freezer and my sisters grew
a foot each it seemed. I saw new buildings when we traveled places and there
seemed to be new technology everywhere. It made me think about when I come back
to America for good and how many things I’ll have to readjust to. I try not to
think about all of the things that are going to be on my ‘to-do list’ for
moving back but in a few months I suppose I will have to start. Oy.
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