In the US

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year. We certainly did, three times over, as we rushed around trying to fit in as much time, with as many family members as possible. Although we weren't abroad for that long of a time, it is always interesting to return to the US and realize just how different it is from the rest of the world. First things first, we hopped in a personal car and drove to Ohio. No more trains, buses, boats, or any other form of public transportation, we could be where we wanted to be, when we wanted to be, and were once again in control of our own destiny. Great in some respects, but certainly more selfish and less appealing in others. It was even more shocking to return to gas prices that were less than half of what we had seen when we left and almost comical in comparison to the countries we'd left when thinking about the cost in comparison to the total cost of living. Our first food stop was a Cracker Barrel in West Virginia, a slight deviation in demographic than we'd been accustomed to lately. We were craving cheese, biscuits, and other such foods that we had missed while in Asia. It was quite a challenge (though one we valiantly overcame) to eat the pile of food given to us, since by Thai standards it was two meals or more. The greatest shock of all was the weather shift from 90 degrees to 19 degrees, unfortunately we did not get to see snow. Returning to a land of public toilets and toilet paper has been great though.

It was wonderful to ring in the new year here with such amazing friends, and will be tough to transplant our lives to a new country. We're so thankful to have all of your love and support though and we have an open invitation for anyone who would like to come visit. We'll miss you tons; please keep us posted on your lives as well since we'll do our best to continue our updates through this blog.

Happy New Year, do something great with it,
Team Wander