The move and re-entry

Wow - moving back to the U.S. was not exactly easy. Our Belfast friends made packing and selling our things easy, with Bob and Kath making multiple stops to pick up their things, Avril leaving her car unlocked in her drive so we could load it up with toys, our neighbors inviting Watson over for many playdates while we packed, etc... We said goodbye to our friends, visited some of our favorite places for the last time, and then made leave of our very happy home for a year. We ended up taking home 1 extra suitcase that we should have had to pay to check (and was donated by Bob and Kath), but the Aer Lingus representative took pity on us because their line was SO long and slow at Dublin...

On our way back to MI, we had a longish layover in Boston, MA. Kendra's sister and brother-in-law live just over an hour from there, so they came to the airport to see us (had been years!). It was SO great to see them and talk with them and introduce them to Jamieson. Thanks Korinne and Tom!

Arriving home in Lansing, we were greeted with signs and cards and balloons and food from our friends - SO thoughtful and nice! Jubin got our key from Izzy's house down the street and we opened the door to KEYA! We were so happy to see her...and, she us! It was a bit strange settling back into our home that didn't feel quite like home. Actually, it took us almost a year to fully move our stuff back down from the attic (surprise, surprise). In retrospect, we shouldn't have rented our car to the German's who rented our house (no oil in it, WAY many miles put on it), but really, it is hard to complain when they adopted Keya... And, they left the house in pretty good shape. That first week or so, it was great to see our family, friends, and pets. I collected Cedar from my colleague's house and I was so worried that she would have a hard time adapting to Keya and Jamie again, but right away she was happy and acting like she had never been gone! And, we were SO grateful for our large kitchen and laundry. ;)

It was an interesting transition back to our lives in the U.S. I had assumed that we would need a month to adjust when we moved to Belfast, but hadn't expected the same on the return. It was a LOT tougher returning than we thought! We actually experienced true culture shock. Everything seemed so BIG, FAST, LOUD, BRIGHT! Life seemed so hectic and everyone seemed stressed and unhappy. Izzy down the street was a great help for Watson's transition, but he SO missed his Geneva Gardens mates (as did we!). And, we realized that we really like urban living - walking and biking and busing everywhere really appealed to us. We tried hard to hold on to some of the feelings (and our life style) we had in Belfast, mainly by NOT signing the boys up for lots of after-school activities and NOT scheduling lots of weekend events (of course, the down-side to that is that we still haven't hosted some of our friends over after almost a year of being home!). But, relatively quickly, reality set in - Watson was back at camps a week after we returned, Jamieson went back to Jen's house on the north-side of Lansing until ELSS started up after Labor Day, and we were back to work full time, getting ready for teaching.

One of the things that made a big impression on us was the realization of how much we rely on our car(s) in MI and how little we enjoy that fact. In fact, we tried to live with one car for the summer/fall. What a mess; we found that we needed a car for each adult, given the different adult and child schedules. Jubin and Kendra split time riding bikes back and forth to work for a couple of months. We enjoyed riding our bikes for the approximately 5 miles each way, but found the roads unforgiving, car drivers disrespectful, daylight short, etc... What a short-lived experiment! We ended up buying a used Toyota Prius in mid-Oct and even succumbed to an MSU parking permit in January. But, we have new perspective now, and are sure to be much more cognizant of the choices we make regarding where we live and how we get where we are going.