Back in the U.S.A

It has been almost two months since we got off tour and I am just starting to “come to” and reflect back on those very different nine months.   Different in a good way, bad way, and everything in between.

Towards the end of tour Joel, Brent, and I talked about the things we wanted to take back home with us.  For example, we wanted to take long meals back with us.  The ones where you just sit and talk and visit for hours.  The waiter rarely comes over and your meal is secondary to your conversation.  We also said we would pack “chinning in the eyes,” otherwise known as clinking glasses and looking each person in the eye before taking your first sip of wine.  Our friend Charlene was ADAMANT about this.  I now love this and feel I cannot have a sip of wine without first chinning in the eyes.  I guess this applies to other things, like water, but I wouldn’t now anything of that.  

So, these things I packed in my big suitcase when I returned to the states, and have been trying my best to infuse them into my life here.

Little did I know that there would be so many other things that would follow me back home, or would change me for the better because of “tour.”  I guess some good things   snuck their way into my suitcase without me knowing.

First, my perception of space has been altered severely, and for the better.  My room in my summer digs in Sun Valley is HUGE and the condo itself is a mansion.  My “roommate” is really my mansion-mate and although our rooms are next door to each other, in my mind she lives waaaaay down the mansion hall.  My bed looks like it could fit at least three people in it.  And my bathroom!  I have it all to myself.

Second, I have for the first time in my life wanted to cook. I have gotten really into cooking, or so I think. It’s all relative.  Instead of opening a can of kidney beans and digging into it with a spoon, I dump the kidney beans into a pan, add some vegetables and a spice or two and stir fry them up.  Fancy pants!

Also, I think I have become a way better traveller.  I recently had to take a quick trip and the first thing I did when I checked into my hotel was ask for a map.  That was the way on tour-  check in, get your key, get a map, and ask where the nearest laundry mat was.  Cool thing, on this particular recent trip the washer and dryer was in my hotel room.  Can you imagine?!  It nearly brought tears to my eyes (even though I had no laundry to do.)  Anyways, with my map easily accessible, I did my practiced European stroll.  Turn my ipod on, stick my ear buds in, pick a good landmark to come back to (my version of leaving crumbs; bread crumbs would seem a bit antiquated in conjunction with the ipod playing and all) and get good old lost.

But wow, I have become a chatterbox.  I guess I have missed conversing with everyday “strangers”.... like cashiers, baristas, anyone I would have otherwise faked mute to back in Europe.  I take every opportunity to start up a conversation and I am fairly certain I have become annoying to the folks of Sun Valley.

And, for anyone worried, my vocabulary has slowly grown back.  I can speak in the present tense, past tense, and future tense pretty easily and I incorporate multiple syllable words into my speech more frequently.  

Skating wise, Brent and I have become better performers.  We have also become better workers on the ice.  We spend more time skating and less time analyzing.  Maybe because in the 240 shows we did on tour (sadly that number is not an exaggeration) we came to learn that things almost never feel perfect.  

Here are the less positives from tour:

Living with the same group of people for nine months is REALLY HARD.  It feels like every bad reality show wrapped into one.  There are elements of Big Brother, Survivor, The Bachelor, Celebrity Apprentice, etc...   Sometimes it feels like just plain bad TV.  Like episodes of shows you’d find on the CW (no offensive, CW.)  There is no need to have contact with the outside world, yet there is zero privacy.  There is no room to vent.  You whisper in your hotel room, knowing the walls are thin and you are still surrounded by the same 40 people.  And you turn crazy.  It just happens.  It is fact.  You get passionate about things you actually have little interest or care in.  You find yourself in heated conversations about who is or is not the boy monkey in the show.  

Also, doing the same thing 240 times is pretty bizarre.  I started to feel confused....like, “I did this already. A lot.  When do I get to cross this off my list of things to do this week?” I think once I even wrote an email in my head while we were skating.  That may have been one of my more productive moments on the ice.

And then some really small but negative things that I have found out about myself, or my homeland:

I have become someone who starts sentences with “On tour...”  This bugs me.

I never realized how expensive wine is here.  It makes me really sad.  No joke.  I am very disheartened by this.

It is true-  compared to Europeans, and in particular the French, we dress like bums here in the USA.  Ugh.  The French are just so cool.