Culture Shock

Culture Shock is the well known adjustment to a new and entirely foreign place.  The first month is wildly exciting, the sixth month is absolutely miserable, and by a year in you've forgotten you ever lived anywhere else.

The folks who discuss Culture Shock also say that Reverse Culture Shock can be much more difficult to cope with.  Reverse Culture Shock is the adjustment back to one's native culture, after living outside of it.  I had heard depressing reports on Reverse Culture Shock, and was prepared for a difficult adjustment.  We've had very little trouble (except for the groceries), but a few things do continue to surprise me.

Clothes:
I used to be a jeans and a T-shirt kind of gal.  Well, I still am that kind of a gal, but I used to be a lot frumpier about it.  The jeans fit nicely, but the T-shirt could be old, and would certainly be baggy.  In the time I spent in China, I've decided that its not really appropriate to leave the house in clothes that don't fit, or in clothes that have holes in them.  Faded t-shirts and ripped up shorts were either tossed or moved to the bottom of my drawer.  I may still wear jeans and T-shirts, but everything fits, and things look a bit more put together these days.
That look carried me most everywhere in China - to the grocery store or the playground, to church and to Starbucks, and to most casual restaurants.  But what people wear here keeps surprising me.
We've been spending our Sunday mornings at The Falls Church, a church where we felt comfortable immediately.  But where we also immediately realized that we were underdressed.  Folks there wear their Sunday best.  I haven't worn my Sunday best to church since I was a little kid!  In one sense, this area seems very formal.  But then we went for a bike ride yesterday afternoon, and stopped at a busy playground.  Plenty of folks wore to this playground the clothes they wore to mow the lawn - complete with grass stains.  I'll admit, I'm having trouble reconciling these two.

Prices:
Its not just the grocery store that throws me - but golly, the grocery store sure does throw me.  I love how affordable breakfast cereal and cheese have become for me.  But produce just shot through the roof, and many of my baking and cooking basics cost much more than I expected.  Organic certainly does not fit into our family budget (sadly).
But other things shock me, too.  Target still grabs me, with loads of items that I still categorize as Hard-To-Find sitting neatly on the shelf, with a price tag below $5.  Kids toys cost next to nothing - even good ones.  And I can buy used books everywhere I turn.  I am loving the library, and playgrounds seem to be around every corner.  But entry to swimming pools and museum parking lots seems astronomical.

Life in General:
I am still in love with the green space, and the smell of flowers or grass in the air.  We have been biking and swimming this week, and we'll add camping and hiking in the coming week.  People here are beautifully friendly, and everyone is just awfully nice - including drivers, who just stop in the middle of the street when they see me waiting to cross!  It will take me a long time to get used to that.  D.C. may feel like an expensive region to us these days, but it is certainly pleasant, and we're enjoying it to the full extent of our budget.