Back to the USA

 

I imagined when we returned to the U.S. this summer, that I'd have lots of great material to write on-- you know, our impressions of the U.S. after being away. But I guess we've lived there too long and been away too short of a time to have any huge shifts in view point.

 

So this post is mostly for our Swedish friends.  A lot of people in Sweden picture the U.S. as New York or Los Angelos-- the big cities are what you see most in TV and movies.  Where we live in southwestern Virginia is pretty much the complete opposite of a big city. We never fully understood the term 'hillbilly' until we moved to Virginia.

 

Here's a taste of our US home and we'll see if I come up with any philosophical thoughts (great or otherwise) while I'm at it. 

 

First morning home, we hung our Swedish banner and our
hummingbird feeder on the front porch. I've missed my
hummingbird friends! I don't know if you can see our neighbors'
cows and horses across the street.It was raining so you also
can't see the mountains in the distance.

Happily we still had some hummingbirds around, even though
they haven't been getting the easy food while we've been gone.
This little guy came into the garage and then wouldn't leave.

Typical morning fog. It is foggy nearly every morning.

Now it's lightening up-- this is our back yard

We spent a lot of time mowing! This shot shows our huge, old
maple tree that we love.

Our street

Walking down our street at sunset

 Yes, we have neighbors, but they are quite spread apart. It was so quiet compared to our Sweden city house.  We really enjoyed returning to the peace. But I didn't enjoy having to get in the car and drive to get any time someone needed to go anywhere. I was reminded of how seldom I drive in Sweden. And the kids were reminded how much they like being able to transport themselves everywhere by bike rather than waiting on mom and dad all the time. But things are so much farther apart in southwest Virginia, and there aren't sidewalks, let alone bike paths.

I actually had to visit the gas station-- multiple times!

Dare I admit how happy we were to go to Wal-mart?
Ah, the selection and low prices!

 

And that is shopping in the US in a nutshell-- so much STUFF.We found we had very mixed feelings on that. On one hand, it felt a bit disturbing to see how much time, energy and money was spent acquiring more stuff. It was a bit disgusting. But on the other hand, we did a lot of shopping ourselves-- to get clothes, shoes, etc. at half what they would cost us in Sweden!
And we did indulge in some really junky US junk food that we hadn't had in a while.And oh, American pizza......

American pizza is still the best!

Very typical of our area-- cow pastures tucked between the
Blue Ridge and Appalachian mountains. It is hard to find even a spot
of flat ground--very hilly!

Hiking in the mountains

 

The Cascades-- a nearby waterfall

For some reason there are always tons of butterflies at the Cascades.
These are Virginia's state butterfly.

We took our canoes out on the New River a few times.
Here's our favorite spot to stop and swim and play.

 

Claytor Lake-- a large reservoir in our area

 What else, it was fun to catch fireflies, to have huge thunderstorms nearly afternoon, to actually feel hot now and then--even a little sunburn felt novel. We were reminded that in Virginia people ask "Where do you go to church?" not "You go to church?"(while looking strangely at you)

We could do without the poison ivy and ticks. :-)  And airport security! Yuck! The USA has the most annoying, unfriendly customs and security that we've encountered so far. Even Great Britian, which has pretty intense security, manages to do it more logically and cheerfully.