Starting a New Chapter

Aloha, and welcome to my newest blog--all about making the transition from expat back to citizen in a setting that makes you feel like you're on a permanent vacation.

My previous two blogs were about life as an expat in Hamburg and Munich. Different country, different rules, different language.

So it seems weird to write about my return to the U.S. in the same context. Except that it is. Different country, different rules, different language.

Different country

The United States I left in summer of 2015 and I return to nearly four years later is a different place. In fact, when I told my family I was moving back my mom asked, "Are you sure you want to come back right now?"

Even on a cloudy day it's a stunning view

"Well, since our president doesn't seem to recognize islands as part of the U.S., I think we'll be okay," I joked.

But I'm going to remove politics and social unrest from the equation and focus on that idea--the idea of Hawaii as a place so far removed from the everyday American psyche that it feels like a foreign country.

The landscape is certainly different than what you see on the mainland. Coming from California before the Germany experience, I could argue about the diverse landscapes you'll find within hours of each other just in that one state.

But on Maui you get that diversity--and then some--in a more compact setting. It's like Bay Area microclimates meets LA beaches meets Inland Empire farm country plus Icelandic otherworldly volcanic terrain and, of course, a tropical paradise.

Different rules

Shortly after I arrived, I mentioned how I was adjusting to people being so friendly and open and laid-back when you first meet them. Definitely a shift in gears from Germany, where a neighbor I encountered one day in the laundry room (we'd seen each other several times in passing) asked if she could introduce herself to me (before actually introducing herself to me).

Not your usual traffic accident, but I took this picture
walking along the road to home, where police cars had
convened to get the boat owner's statement.

The laughing response to my observation was that most people here are retired or on their honeymoons, so of course they're happy. An exaggeration, of course, because I've consistently found the same good feeling with locals.

At the mall and the craft fair and the shops downtown, sure. But also at the post office. And the DMV(!).

Or when Larry and I went to go see about buying a car we saw on Craigslist and the seller walked up to me and gave me a hug and said "Welcome to Maui" before even introducing himself.

Each day points me toward some unwritten rule about appreciating the timeless beauty of this place, so why wouldn't you be good to yourself and the people around you?

Different language

Before I left Munich someone asked what I was going to do here besides relax and go to the beach and write. I laughed that maybe I'd learn Hawaiian, having just read an article about the language's recent resurgence.

Little did I know that it might be true.

I grew up as a Army brat, so I'm familiar with different regional vocabularies in the U.S. But this is different. It's not "soda" versus "pop" or "skunk" versus "polecat." It's "keiki" versus "child" and "kama’aina" versus "local/resident."

Hawaiian words are peppered throughout everyday speech. And even in just the few weeks I've been here I've seen how helpful it is to understand some basic root words and how they combine for larger concepts (actually, much like German).

Getting the pronunciation right is going to take some work, but it's important, particularly since most of the street names, locations, highways, etc. are Hawaiian. In Germany, I found a YouTube channel to help with my studies. I might need to adopt a similar approach here.

So, speaking of approach, my goal with this blog is not to compare my last few years abroad with my life here (at least, not all the time). It's to explore the everyday adjustments I have to make in coming back.

And how I find my own way to feel that I'm home.