I Love Oklahoma(ns)!

It has been three weeks to the day since I've come from Japan. It feels like it's been longer.
Tonight is the first time in two years that I've got to see, smell, hear, and feel a supercell thunderstorm. I was afraid that it wouldn't be as great as an experience in the city (as opposed to the little town we lived in 30 miles outside of OKC before I went to Japan), but it was a little more interesting.
Here is the scene: About 7pm all of the basic channels and the Weather Channel were freaking out because there were thunderstorms with a large potential for tornados popping up all over the state. So my family, my good friend Stephanie, and I set down for a nice game of spades keeping one ear tuned in to the weather report in the background. About 20 minutes later, all of the weathermen were freaking out because a line of storms had popped up diagonal like across the state with a huge, rotating storm going through El Reno - a small podoc town just west of OKC - and heading straight east towards the city. Shortly after, there was pandemonium coming from all of the weather men as a weak, unorganized tornado was sighted just east of El Reno. In fact it tore the roof off some buildings at the towns local airport. Of course all of the news channels got the footage at all sorts of different angles - from helicopters, from the ground, etc. As the tornado danced back up into the clouds, the storm kept on a straight, slow path towards OKC. The supercell kept rotating, and as it slowly crawled into Oklahoma county, it started lowering, threatening to drop another tornado. I didn't know this before tonight, but if a tornado is sighted anywhere within Oklahoma county, tornado sirens will go off all over the county.
Sure enough, they went off. We did what any Oklahoman would do when a tornado siren goes off: run outside to see what can be seen. As we went outside, I noticed that many of our neighbors were already out on their porches looking at the menacing skies while keeping their ears tuned to the voice of Gary England blaring on their TV's inside their houses. There were people out walking who didn't seem in a hurry to be anywhere even as the wind was blowing, lightning was flashing, thunder was booming, huge, black clouds were coming, and tornado sirens were going off.
As I walked off the porch to catch a better glimpse of the oncoming storm, I felt myself being in a perfectly nostalgic moment. I remembered a 4th grader who had gotten over her absolute fear of severe weather after learning about storms and how tornados were formed, and how several days later, when a Spring storm came, for the first time in her life she looked up at the clouds in amazement instead of fear. How, from that point on, she would dream of learning more about this awesome force of nature and perhaps unlocking some of its mysteries. How she would spend many years with her head in the clouds (literally), soaking up everything she could about severe weather and getting yelled at by her mother every time a storm came through because she needed to come in or she would get struck by lightening.
As that storm approached, it was the perfect moment: the wind with the smell of rain on it, the ominous clouds filled with lightning, the deep, rolling thunder, the weathermen freaking out on the the TV (with Gary England leading the way), the tornado sirens. Yes, it was a very nostalgic moment.
When the sun went down, the storms lost their fury. After replaying the little tornado footage they had over and over again (most with the damage done at the El Reno airport included in it), the basic channels finally went back to their regularly scheduled programs. As I sat with my family and got beat at a game of spades because I am not daring enough to take the chance to go blind neal, I felt thankful - thankful to God for family, friends, storms, and that I am an Oklahoman living in the great state of Oklahoma.

Back in Oklahoma

The past three weeks have been a whirlwind of packing and unpacking, leaving and returning, goodbyes and hellos, happiness and sadness. Over three weeks ago, I packed up everything in my little Japanese apartment, said goodbye to it, went on a five-day, fun-filled adventure with my two pals Peter and Travis to Vietnam, returned to Japan and stayed six days with my two favorite Japanese people Junko and Yutaka, said a wrenching goodbye to them and many other Japanese people, took a very long flight to the U.S. (I believe that was the first flight I really didn’t enjoy), was met in the airport by my very best friends and my dear family, went the very next day to the emergency room where my grandfather had just been taken, helped him and my mom out as he had a pacemaker put into his heart, and have finally started to unpack and settle down in my new room in my mom’s new house (actually it is a very old house built almost 100 years ago, but it’s new to me).
As soon as I find the cord that allows me to put pictures from my camera onto my computer, I will post pictures from Vietnam and my last six days in Japan on my picture page and then blog about them (for a little taste of the Vietnam experience, check out Peter’s entry), but for now, I will construct a top 10 list about the ins and outs of returning to my “home” after having a life and a “home” in Japan for two years.

10. Hello to television that I can understand. I missed shows like Star Trek (here’s a shout-out to all of the Trekkies out there!) and TV channels like the Weather Channel. And now I can watch Lost when it actually comes on.

9. Hello public libraries full of books that I can actually read.

8. I love Oklahoma weather. It is so beautiful. The sunsets are breathtaking, the air has a sweetness to it, and the storms make my blood boil. It’s good to be back in Spring.

7. It’s good and bad to be eating American food again. It’s good because it tastes so good: chips and queso and salsa, BBQ, enchiladas, All-you-can-eat Chinese buffet, All-you-can eat buffets period (for example Golden Corral or “Golden Trough” as I affectionally call it), real pickles that don’t smell like feet (I think that Japanese “skemono” or pickles smell like feet), Hostess treats, powdered-sugared donuts, and tons of other things that are deep-fried, add 10 pounds with each bite, clog your arteries, and are so yummy.
It’s bad because my stomach has been revolting against all of this good food (or maybe that’s a good thing).

6. I am so happy to be have dogs again. They are so great, even though they sling drool all over me and I can’t get away from their shedding hair.

5. Americans are so stinking opinionated, which isn’t that bad except they throw it around every chance they get. It is completely opposite of the keep-your-opinion-to-yourself or your-opinion-is-better-than-mine mindset of the Japanese. Besides, I’m the only one who’s allowed to let my opinion be known all the time. It’s right anyways.

4. I love the U.S., but when it comes to customer service it’s hit and miss. In Japan, 99.9% of the time customers receive exceptional customer service. Ever since I left Japanese territory, I haven’t been more aware of the disparity between customer service here in the U.S. and in Japan. I can’t say it any better than Denver has…

3. Hello to Southern kindness. In the Oklahoma City airport alone there were four people who kindly offered to help me with my bags and one big, muscled man with a fork lift who actually did. It put me into reverse culture shock! That doesn’t really happen in Japan. And I haven’t been able to count how many doors that have been held open for me. Most of the time I don’t need people to help me or hold doors open for me, but it sure is nice when they offer. I love the South!

2. Good-bye to all of my dear friends in Japan. My heart hurts that it can’t see you and be with you. Good-bye to my great students (most of the time). I miss trying to deflect your konchos and trying to communicate with you in anyway possible. Good-bye to the adventure, the good times, the bad, my apartment, those crazy roads, the crazy trains, the food, worshiping in church with Japanese and foreigners together, the obliging Japanese the challenges…. I mourn it all.

1. It’s good to be home with family and friends. I’ve considered many places “home” but they aren’t home simply because I live there. They are home because the people I love and care for are there. Thank you God for family and friends.