I'm 2 weeks into my stay in the States--I can't believe time is going so fast, but I guess it always does when you are having fun. Again, I don't find it too strange to be back in the States. I guess it's because I've been traveling and moving around for the last year...I haven't had the same bed for longer than a few months since last May!
Also, I think that since my general lifestyle hasn't changed, it's not too hard to adjust to a new place. I guess that part of the study abroad experience is to try and live a different life for a year, take a new culture for a test-drive of sorts, so as to compare it to your own experiences. I haven't been immersed enough in any new culture to really lose my old way of life. University life is, to an extent, just university life, no matter where it takes place (with exceptions, of course).
But along the way to cultural immersion is adaptation. There are little things that are different in each culture, that no matter how you choose to live your life, you will have to adapt to in order to get along in the new culture. Things that I've gotten used to in Germany are...
-hearing foreign languages all around me and all signs in German
-weighing fruit and vegetables at the grocery store
-sorting trash and recycling it like crazy!
-Euros
-paying for your drink or meal after you are finished and having to ask for the check
-smoking allowed in most bars...
...to name a few. So it is these small differences that I am really noticing now. Dollar bills look weird, and so do the power outlets. Hearing English conversations and being able to read every sign and advertisement is now foreign to me. These little things remind me that although I am not living a new life nor am I a new person, I have been able to adapt to the changes around me and get along just fine :)
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