At the end of
January, we went back to California to visit family and friends and to attend
my cousin’s wedding. I have a lot of cousins but this particular cousin is
extra special to me because we grew up very close. When she told me she was
engaged and asked if I would go back for her wedding, I said yes in a
heartbeat!
We made it just in time for her bachelorette party in San
Francisco, although our luggage stayed in Istanbul (where we’d had a layover)
for an extra day. I was a bit stressed about leaving for the party without any
of my things, but thank goodness I have such a great sister-in-law who hooked
me up with clothes, shoes, make up, and accessories to wear in the City for the
celebration. The bride also brought me extra clothes and asked her friend to
bring me extra clothes, so in the end I had more than enough!

Visiting California was like a glorious wonderland. We
had no responsibilities, we had all the food options we could ever dream of,
and we got to spend precious time with family and friends. I am so grateful
that we were able to visit home in the middle of our Peace Corps service. The
notion that we had the trip planned helped me stay dedicated to my service,
even through one of the toughest times of year to be living away from family:
the holiday season. Looking forward to something is always good.
Plus, it was just a nice break! Everything was easy. Going
shopping was easy. Communication was so easy!
I could ask a waiter anything and they would understand and then I would
get the exact food I wanted! I know this might sound oddly normal to those of
you living in the States, but this was huge for me. I was also so happy to eat
all the foods I’d been missing so much!
The one thing I struggled with was finding one thing I
wanted in a big selection of things. For example, I went to the grocery store
and wanted to buy a certain kind of vitamins. I was looking at the vitamins for
a while and I couldn’t find the ones I wanted. It was like my brain was
overloaded! It could not process everything at once. It wasn’t stressful
though, I just asked someone who worked there to help and she found them right
away. Communication wins again!
It was such a great trip. Coming back was a little hard,
but it’s all good. We’re in the middle of our last semester of teaching and the
end is near. I’m happy and excited for the next step (grad school, yeah!), but
for now I’m enjoying the slow pace of life and all that delicious Ethiopian
coffee.