the culture stress chronicles [part 2]

I don't think I realized how much I love and need routines/structure until I suddenly didn't have them.

My typical schedule in Nicaragua was something like this--up between 5:30am and 6am, jogging, getting ready for work, a 30 minute bus ride (this part was completely unpredictable every day, but you can read my former blog for stories about that), a 20 minute walk, and then 8 hours at the office, followed by a return commute, a Nica dinner (often eggs, beans, and tortilla), and chilling with the roommates.

Since I have been back in Texas, though, I have had practically no routine whatsoever. I have moved houses 4 times in 5 weeks (thanks to many generous friends in SA who are hosting me this summer until I move to Austin). I have been out of town for 2 weeks (once to AZ/CA, and the other to CO). My first several weeks, my free hours were partially occupied trying to see lots of people and trying to get basic logistical things in my life in order.

But there were a lot of hours during that period when I wasn't doing either of those two things, and that's when the real trouble would start. My heart would hurt (pues, it still does), longing to talk to or mejor todavia, see my Nica friends, speak in Spanish, eat at a fritanga and listen to all the fregadera (jokes). So I decided to get MSN on my phone to be able to text los muchachos even if I wasn't near my laptop.

With so little structure those first few weeks, it was hard to feel purpose or a connection to things here. But being present in Texas is awful hard when your heart is still 3,000 miles away.