Back in the ol' US of A

After about 25 hours of traveling, I have finally returned to Texas. In some ways, it is kind of surreal, but in another sense, it seems very... normal.

Surreal: When I got into the London Heathrow airport, I was struck on two different fronts. First, all of the signs seemed incomplete to me. For a while, I couldn't figure out why all the signs seemed to make me feel this way. Then I realized - there was no Arabic accompanying the English. Weird.

I'm so used to a language barrier - having to reexplain, use different words or pronunciation more clearly - that I found myself ready to strain to communicate to people. And when the first woman I spoke to (who wasn't white) was a brit, I found myself a little taken aback.

My mom and brother picked me up from the airport, and she asked what I wanted to do for dinner.

"Chipotle." The best burritos this side of the border.

What about other things I'm excited about? Well... I'm not really sure. There are so many western things in Bahrain, that sometimes I'm not sure what it is I've missed until I see it.

Don't worry. I'll keep you posted.