back back to the US of A

after 24 hours of traveling,
including a 6 hour layover in london heathrow,
we’re back in the US.

i’m not quite sure if i’m happy to be back.
i’m experiencing a bit of reverse culture shock,
e.g. the price of 2 tomatoes was over $3
the first time we went shopping for food
whereas in amman we could get a little over 2 pounds of tomatoes
for about $1.50.
even more so,
if i went to my local fruit and veggie seller
and tried to buy JUST 2 tomatoes
he’d probably just give them to me.

as i’m traveling around
seeing the familiar stores and restaurants
i’m remembering all the things i haven’t had in a long time
– like vanilla wafers,
turkey bacon,
trail mix,
hot tomales candy,
salmon patties,
jamaican patties and cocoa bread,
and on and on… –
and realizing that i didn’t miss most of it that much.

one thing i’m NOT missing about amman
is the winter cold.
it’s been in the 60s and up here in atlanta! YAY!

we’re looking for a place to rent
– affordable, near a playground/park, library, shopping, sunny
so make dua/prayer for us –
and ishaq’s looking for work,
and i’m trying to hold myself back from ebay and overstock.com.

before i end this
i want to make a quick shout to everyone
that helped make our move easier:

debra, our packing advisor
(”do you really need that?”,
“you should roll that”, and
“what are you going to do with that?”),

saada, our family moving facilitator
(she cooked meals for us and watched the girls),

carima
(cleared my pantry and fridge),

hajjah katrina, our hotelier in DC
(let me crash at her one bedroom
with three children
after JUST returning from hajj),

quadira, our hotelier in MD
(let 7 people spend the night at her one bedroom
while she wasn’t even there),

mama and mama alice, our drivers
(chauffeuring me and the girls
from DC to ATL),

mama alice (again), our bed and breakfast (and lunch and dinner and snack)
(hosting and feeding us while we look for our own space),

and
mama (again), our mail courier
(taking care of our business in the US while we were in amman).

like an a musician winning a grammy:
we could not have done this without you all.
*sniff*
(if i forgot to mention you by name,
you know who you are…my bad.)