This next week marks our third month back in the States.  Time has flown by already and we haven't even established a routine just yet.  People often ask us what it's like being home after spending the last three years in China.  And to be honest, it's just really nice to be home.  America is still home to us.  We have thoroughly enjoyed our time here already and have not experienced any symptoms of reverse culture shock at all.  (Caffeine overload for me from all the GREAT coffee, but that's not quite the same thing.) The hardest part for me has been trying to sum up the past three years in China when my fellow Americans ask me matter-of-fact, "So how was China?"

When asked this question I usually just pause in slack-jawed silence for a full minute.  "Uhhhhh…"

It's not that there weren't great and difficult experiences I could share with them about those first three years.  It's just that I find it really difficult to find words to match those experiences.  To summarize it in a sentence or two just isn't possible.  "Yeah, it was alright…"

If you've been watching The Today Show (televised from Beijing the past few weeks) you might think you have some idea what life in China might be like.  But you would be wrong.  Terribly, terribly wrong.  The closest thing I've witnessed to real-life China on that show is when Al Roker took a crash course in Mandarin Chinese.  As he bumbled his way through the tones and pronunciation and was mockingly given a language evaluation by elementary-aged kids, I was cheering in my living room, "Feel our pain, America.  Feel our pain!"


But in spite of the misrepresentation in the western media (and the terribly bad pronunciation of Chinese names) it HAS been a lot of fun to see all those places we've been to in Beijing and to get brief glimpses (and sound bytes) from our home away from home.  Sarah has especially liked seeing her China on the TV screen every day.  Even though it's not home yet, it is definitely familiar to us now.  But you know what they say about familiarity's breeding habits…

Uh, yeah.  We shall see.