Cultural shock

Ok, I know I was only out of the states for two years so the shock really comes from the adjustment and how much I miss Uruguay.

I miss the attitude that 10pm or even 11pm was still early and the night was still young!

I saw a woman the other day at Wal-Mart walking around with her parrot on her shopping cart...that was shocking.

Where are the open markets? I loved weekends walking around the park in Montevideo and visiting all the make-shift stands.

Speaking of walking, I hardly ever see anyone outside walking here! Do they all just stay inside and watch their TVs? The other day I walked to the grocery store and three people honked at me. Was it because I was walking and they thought it was a ridiculous enough idea they felt they had to honk?

I ate more hearty meals in Uruguay. Where's my delicious, cheap steak and wide variety of fresh foods? Oh, I remember, they're too expensive here! But hey, chips and junk food are cheap! :/

I feel like the attitude here in the U.S. is that if you work all day you can only have fun on the weekends, but weekdays can be just as fun too! We use to stay out until 2 am on a Wednesday (the old and the young) and then get up and go to work! Who cares how much sleep you get if it means you get to have fun and celebrate someone's brithday or recent accomplishment at work or school!

Some things I don't miss about Uruguay though are: the poop on the side walk, kids smoking marijuana on the street corner and lazy police! I appreciate our officers and I like that I don't have to watch where my foot falls every time I am out doors. Although, I harldy ever get the chance to walk here because we are such a car culture...

Big cars! That's another shocker. We all have such big cars! Why is that? They eat up so much more gas and are harder to park.

Stuff, we have so much stuff! It's amazing all that we have and we just want more, I know I'm part of that, but I am at least proud that I can recognize when I am wasteful and greedy and then remedy the situation. I had no idea how wasteful I was until I lived in a third world country. If your zipper breaks on your boots, don't buy a new pair, fix the zipper, the boots are still perfectly good!

Ok, that's all I have for now, I could go on and on but I should cut it off now!