We're On a Mission » home http://www.wereonamission.org Using English and Technology in Europe for God Fri, 11 Jun 2010 00:31:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Home, or almost Home. http://www.wereonamission.org/updates/blog/594 http://www.wereonamission.org/updates/blog/594#comments Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:09:28 +0000 Thadd http://www.wereonamission.org/?p=594 I’m sure many of you have come home after a time away to find things comfortable similar, familiar, and “just the way you left it…” and for us it is feeling more that way to be back in the states after almost 2 years. But in a few ways it is much different. (You might be thinking, come on. It isn’t that different to start with than Germany, so how is ‘home’ much different?)

For starters, (and I know we always start with this, but give me some slack I’m an English major) the language is a large part of what has made the US home for us and what helps to make it feel again like home. It is amazing the amount of energy commitment to constantly be used trying to understand conversations. This almost shocked us when we got back to the US, sitting in the Airport realizing how easy it was to eavesdrop on every other conversation.

On the other hand, living and operating in a foreign language uses a different side of the brain, and it feels that we are stuck in that mode. Walking through the busy Newark Airport, I accidentally bumped into a gentleman with my rolling bag. Granted I’m carrying Lilli in her car seat in one hand, so naturally my attention is on her and not behind me on my other bag. But as my reaction to disturb anyone else’s space went I blurted out in German, “Entschuldigung” (excuse me) only to realize that the gentleman I ran into was a fully garbed Hasidic Jew. Unfortunate irony aside, I hope he practices forgiveness…

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