The Process of Repatriation

 The things that you take for granted can either become comforting or stand out as odd when you live the expat life for a few years. The first few days of being home, it was like the kids "once were blind but now they see." They would see billboards and exclaim, "LOOK! XXX (enter rando business or restaurant or food) or they would squeal with delight when seeing a familiar landmark, i.e.  "SIXFLAGS!"  They actually enjoyed the grocery store and wanted to purchase any and every piece of junk food that they had not seen in three years.

Besides for all the signs and landmarks, it didn't take long to remember we were back in Texas.

We stayed in the 'hometel' again for several weeks. Our room had a nice view of downtown Fort Worth.

One night I burned microwave popcorn. Burned it bad. I was even standing near it, and by the time I smelled the stench, it was too late. We opened the door and tried to vent the smoke, but you know how burned popcorn odor last for days. There was a lot of smoke. So much smoke that I called the front desk and warned them that if the smoke alarm went off it was because of our popcorn. He assured me it would not go off.

A few days later, the fire alarm did go off. There were firemen in the building and lights outside. The firemen assured us everything was fine. You wanna guess why the alarm went off? Yep, someone burned something in the microwave.

After visiting Grannie and Grandad, one of the first things we did was buy a new car. This is Gloria.

The other things we did was meet some of the friends that we were missing so much. Unfortunately we didn't get pictures of everyone, but I got a few.

The Shaws with our Korean facial masks.

Jen, Lindsay and Trish

The Gragowskis

The Mays

We made it home just in time for 7-11 Day and free slurpees!

We got to play with our Texas family that we were so glad to finally see again.

Grannie, Debbie, Roselyn, Grace, Daisy, Solomon, Roger,  Adam & Eli

I also got a chance to visit my Korean friends who were visiting Texas when we returned.

Trish, Mb, Wioletta and Dawn

Mb, Trish and Theresa

We bought a 2nd car. I was driving Abe to and from work and kids to and from school. Anigo Montoya Fernando Forte will eventually belong to the kids. But for now it's my car. The car market is nuts. It is literally cheaper to buy a brand new car than a used one of the same kind. 😲

We had lots of pool time while in the hometel.

Jet lag is real.

[July]