No one told me.....

that when you joined the FS and raised your sweet babies abroad, you needed to prep them in order to head back to the US for R&R so they "fit in" with really important skills, like how to eat FlavorIce. Alli came over to me with one in her hand and looked at me with wide eyes, saying "What is this? Look at this!!" - my poor, third-culture kid :)

Don't forget your carry-on.

No one told me that the most important and sometimes the only thing you ever need to pack in the FS is.........your sense of humor.

Because the highlight of this week is that I don't have scabies.

Seriously.

Turns out I am just allergic to Thai band aids.

Good grief. Can't wait to file these medical claims. Excuse me while I go pour myself a bottle of wine.

No one told me.....

that you can get so, amazingly, overwhelmingly excited over seeing regular Cheerios in your neighborhood store that you will grab two boxes, let out a little "Wahoo!!" and then come home and rip off the price tags so your husband doesn't have you committed.

No one told me.....

that when you join the FS, your sense of what warrants a strange medical diagnosis completely becomes dependent on worst case scenario - parasites in my intestines?? no big thang!!

today the Doc at the Consulate told me I most likely have a parasite and then proceeded to describe all that it involves, as well as what may come - she then handed me super-strength antibiotics and told me to check back in with her a week.

in the States, a parasite would seem like a big deal - but here, I would say a parasite is pretty mild when compared to dengue fever or TB, which are other options, so in the spirit of welcoming everyone to the proverbial Thanksgiving table, I throw open my arms to this parasite.....wait.......what do you mean I can't drink alcohol with one of the medications?

Parasite - you are totally sitting at the kids table on Thursday.

No one told me.....

When you join the FS, everyone has advice for you - some welcome, some not; some helpful, some not....at the end of the day, I listened to all the advice, planned and prepared the best I could and then I just jumped!

But as we are about 1/4 way through our 1st tour, I am going to start jotting down fun things I am learning along the way....here goes.

#1 - You will get ridiculously, over-the-moon excited about mail. Today I got two magazines and two movies from Netflix. I almost hurdled my husband's desk to get to the pile of mail. I could not have been more excited if you handed me cold hard cash.