Jennifer and Alex Cabezon

We have been in the US now for almost a year.  So I wanted to take some time to write about what it's been like, after 18 years in Panama, to be back in the US. Sometimes, you don't realize how much you have changed, or how far you have disconnected from your home culture until you come back to live.  A lot of thing you glazed over on visits back now come rushing at you in full force. On visits back you didn't have to deal with the school system, health care, or taxes.  You didn't worry about local officials, the state of local roads or the legalization of marijuana.  The health care bills were just distant chatter... you were dealing with getting up at 5:00 AM to be seen a the local clinic, so what did you care about laws that were passed far away? Now, suddenly, you do care. You have to care. Culture shock is a reality, but it doesn't really have boundries. It's not something that happens in a neat period of time and then is over.  Culture shock can hit ...

Our plane landed bumpily after lots of turbulence.  We had just watched the lights of Panama City come into view.  It was just like my first view EVER of Panama City, when I first arrived almost 20 years ago now, when I arrived as an 18 year old, recently graduated from high school and trying out something new.  I remember being thrilled at the sight of the locks of the Panama Canal.  I remember feeling in wonder as I watched the lights of the city, then a wave of panic as I realized that I was flying into a foreign country, where I knew no one, to spend the next 5 months of my life.  What if no one met me?  What if I couldn't figure out what to do and I ended up stranded at the airport, unable to speak Spanish, make a call, get help? Thankfully, that night 20 years ago, the panic subsided, I made my way through immigration and customs, and found friendly faces on the other end. This evening in December, my feelings were very different.  Next to ...