My flight from Narita to PDX was pretty calm and almost relaxing; probably due to the fact that it was Christmas Eve, the plane was only half full, so I got a seat with extra leg room, and there was even space to move to another area of the plane for a while and take a nap in two adjacent, empty seats. I'm pretty sure I watched a movie, but can't remember what it was-either I was tired, or the movie wasn't that memorable...
My sister was kind enough to take a VERY early drive from Eugene to Portland to pick me up. As we were driving down the freeway away from the airport towards downtown Portland, it struck me that it didn't seem like I had been away from Oregon for nine months. I had the thought "It seems like I was just here a couple of weeks ago!" which I thought was strange. But more and more I'm starting to think that time is what's strange--as it says in Ecclesiastes 3:11, God "has planted eternity in the human heart" (New Living Translation)--we were created as eternal beings. SO . . . no reverse culture shock, or at least not in the way I was expecting.
After a quick detour to check out my condominium in Portland, we headed to my parents' house in Springfield. After all my interest and amusement about KFC being a very popular Christmas dinner choice in Japan, and my assurances to everyone here that KFC is NOT an especially popular holiday dinner in America, for dinner on Christmas Eve my family had . . . KFC! I had a good laugh about that!
The next day, on Christmas, most of my immediate family came for dinner. We had a great time together, and the first picture shows people playing a crazy card game called "Pit", which is a favorite in my family. I showed everyone pictures of my travels during the summer when family visited me here, and it was fun to explain those adventures and remember my summer vacation.
Later in the week, my sister and I also had a good time at my brother, sister-in-law and nephew's house hanging out and playing another very fun card game. The last day before I left for Portland, my third brother and sister-in-law visited my parents' house (the third and fourth pictures) and we also looked at pictures and reminisced about their trip to Japan during the summer. The second picture shows their dog, Sunday, who cracked me up in his Santa costume. The last evening in Eugene I stayed at my sister's place (I just realized I can say that in Japanese! "watashi-no imouto-no tokoro ni tomarimashita" I'm learning-hurray!) and we had fun hanging out with her chinchillas and watching silly videos. She drove me back up to Portland the next day, but I'll save that for the next post . . .
(P.S. After fighting with this crazy software to get the pictures to appear in the right order, I finally gave up, so they might not appear in the order I mentioned in the post above, but I think it's pretty obvious.)
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