If you follow us on Facebook, you probably already know that we are home. You know, HOME home. Living-with-my-parents home. Spending-all-our-time-trying-to-remember-how-to-write-a-cover-letter home.
Over the last week we’ve been asked the same few questions, oh, about a million times.
How is it being back?
Being back is fine. Really, it’s fine. It actually sort of feels a little time-warpish, like maybe we never left in the first place. We’re house-sitting for my dad for a month or two, and honestly, we are so freakin excited to be staying in the same place for more than a few nights in a row. We’re also excited that finally we get to buy a full basket of real groceries. It’s the little things people.
What are you going to do now?
What are we doing now? Well, we’re applying for jobs. I was in education before, as a teacher, and I’m sticking with that industry. Ideally I’d like to be in international education, or a study abroad program office, or a curriculum management position…there are a lot of directions this could go. Justin was in a corporate office, doing, you know, corporate office stuff, mostly around meeting and event services. He’d ideally love to be a part of the beer industry (because beer is awesome), probably in a similar events management kind of gig. If any of you have a fabulous connection in either of those fields, let us know!
Are you experiencing reverse culture shock?
No. We spent the last 3 months of the trip in Australia and New Zealand, which really, are so similar to here that we found it all to be a very smooth transition. We did have a little bit of shock entering Australia though. We had come from 6 months in places like India, Nepal, Thailand and Indonesia, and we were THRILLED to be flushing our tp and drinking water straight from the tap again. We were less thrilled to be paying $11 for a pint of beer.
We are experiencing just a little unexpected weirdness, mostly related to how we’ve been living (you know, like vagabonds) for the last 15 months. The first bit is that we are totally overwhelmed by our wardrobes. After having just a few changes of clothes each you’d think we be basically just rolling around in our re-discovered piles of extra clothing. Well, not so much. When we were moving we just stuffed all our clothes into suitcases and threw them into my mom’s basement. Now, it’s a huge disorganized jumble and we can’t find anything that seems appealing. I’m hoping we’ll get over that soon.
The other very strange thing is that we at once want to get out and see all our friends, but at the same time, we don’t want to do anything or see anyone. We have a list of people that we want to call and make plans with but we just haven’t. We spent time hanging with my family, and we’re headed out to see J’s family next week, but it’s not like we are oh-so-busy right now and can’t find time for anything else. This is probably the strangest thing because we were very social when we lived in NYC, and we were pretty social on the road, when we could be, making new friends in the hostels etc. I think it’s just a function of it being only the two of us together for so long, particularly in the last two months when we were camping all the time and had less opportunity to meet a lot of new people. I’m hoping we’ll also get over this soon. In fact, I’m going to force the issue and call some people as soon as I’m done with this post.
As you already can tell, we’ve only been keeping up with Photo Fridays in the last few months of our trip, but we’ve got so many things left to talk about! We have all of Justin’s Moving Box Bet videos to edit, the last of the Roundups to organize, and loads of stories we didn’t have time to write about on the road.
We may be home, but we’re not done with this blog. Thanks for travelling with us, and stick around because the best is yet to come.
The Parallel Life 
welcome home..Vermont? we all here hope to see a glimpse of you two …perhaps at out annual stoop party.
Welcome home… we did have horrible reverse culture shock upon our return but… I think it’s because of the direction of our trip…as you said, you were finishing up in NZ and OZ while that was in the beginning of our trip… we ended with India, Egypt and then a few months overlanding Africa and WOW…standing in a grocery store and having an entire aisle of cereal? Unbelievable and we couldn’t take it. The fat Americans, huge portions, large vehicles, all of it seemed too, too much for us. It’s been a couple years now, since we returned and we’re planning our next big adventure driving the Pan American but I must admit, I still have a hard time with that cereal aisle.
Rhonda, we had exactly the same impressions after moving to CA from living in Europe for 6 years. I remember standing in a parking lot at Target, seeing the acres of SUVs parked there and bursting into tears. The grocery store carts themselves here are all HUGE compared to carts in stores in Europe. We were so used to carrying reusable bags into the stores there. Lo and behold, SF has passed a no-plastic bag law and now 10 years later people here are bringing their reusable bags shopping.
Now that you are home….welcome….happy that you arrived safe and sound….totally enjoyed your adventure and look forward hearing more after you both are settled….
Welcome home!! What an incredible, once in a lifetime adventure you’ve had! Though I don’t envy you this transition home, honestly–such a huge adjustment. Not to mention all the questions that are impossible to answer! Hope it’s all going pretty well and that you can ease your way back to life in America. 🙂 Glad to know there’s still more to come here on your blog!
Welcome home, and can’t wait to hear more about your trip!
Welcome home, A&J. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed following your amazing adventure. Ashley, you could have a second career as a writer. Come see us sometime on 16th St.
Thanks! We’ll be in NYC again sometime this summer, we’d love to see everyone again 🙂