Welcome Back- Now Jump Right In

I have now been back in the United States for almost 2 weeks, readjusting to the very cool Iowa weather and the pace of daily life. The first couple of days were not super easy, as I was trying to get my mind thinking in English again and my body set back to Central time (Ecuador was on Eastern time so when I would get up at 6:15 in Ecuador, that would equate to 5:15 in Iowa- not something I was excited to do). When our flight first arrived in Miami and we went through Customs, it was so weird how the official at the desk said 'Welcome Back' in English and I automatically wanted to respond with 'Gracias'. At that point my brain was literally mixing English and Spanish, but now that I've been hearing only English for awhile, my brain has decided to push Spanish to the back burner.

I arrived back to Luther this past Tuesday afternoon, and it was like coming back from summer break! It was so wonderful seeing all of my friends that I hadn't seen for almost 2 months, plus moving back to my dorm-sweet-dorm. It was super nice to see everyone's welcoming smiles and get many hugs. But that joy was dampened a little by the fact that three of my profs emailed out homework that we were supposed to have complete for the first day of class! I was not thrilled about that, seeing as I didn't even have my books yet.

Yesterday, then, was the first day of classes for the spring semester and let me tell you that my professors did not hold back at all. In all of my classes we pretty much just jumped right in to the material that we'll be plowing through together. I think that I will like most of my classes this term (Educational Psychology, Educational Methods, Botany, and O. Chem), but my schedule will take a while to get used to. Last fall I had 8 AM classes every day, but this term I don't start class until 11 on MWF and 12:45 on T/TH! We'll see how that goes, but I have no doubt that I'll be able to find some way to fill up my mornings.

It's great to be back at Luther and with all of my friends, now I just have to get my mind out of Ecuador time and expectations. Time to jump back into the crazy, fun, busy life of a college student!