Still Adjusting...

For the few of you who still follow my blog, you'll be happy to know that Farid and I are finally moving out of my parents house! We were approved yesterday for an apartment, and will be moving out around July 7th or 8th. The current tenant moves out July 1st, and then of course the apartment will need to be cleaned... but then it's ours!

We've had a lot of set backs in the last eight months since my service ended. We came home on October 13th, with a nightmare-tale of return (see my posts from October 2010) and ended up spending almost the entire readjustment allowance to get back.  Then, the economy was much worse than I had imagined, and I was unable to find a job for more than three months... I ended up taking a part time position instead (which I am still at.) The car we bought at auction blew up, causing us to spend our entire move-out savings on yet another car (three in the time we've been home!) and now, finally, we are able to move out. I will post pictures of course once we get moved.

I'd like to provide a little advice to any current PCVs that may still read this blog. However much time you think you will need for readjustment, finding a job, getting on your feet, or just feeling normal: double it... heck, triple that. I honestly thought that we'd be moved out and back to life as usual by new years. I was wrong. It took an additional six months on top of that for me to begin to feel normal again. And the reverse culture shock never entirely goes away. Last night I went to the Mariners game in Seattle with Farid, and I had a moment of extreme culture shock that I just couldn't describe. Hearing the national anthem live, sitting in the sun trying to catch practice balls, and eating cheese fries and nachos in the ball park... it felt unreal. There are a lot of times where I feel like I'm in a dream, and that I'm going to wake up in my apartment in Yeni Ganja. Readjustment takes time. It's a slow process and I'm finally getting there, one step at a time.