There were a few aspects of American life I have been away from so long that they surprised me on my recent trip back.
The first thing is that everything is bigger. Yards, houses, stores, cars, trees, dogs, and people are all bigger.
The second thing is that everything is colder. This doesn't refer to the outside temperature (which was amazing) but to the air conditioned areas. For instance, the airport in Korea is not really air conditioned that much, it feels like it does outside. Restaurants are kept a little cooler, but you have to be lucky to sit where the ac blows. I almost froze at a Taco Bell in America.
The third thing it that all the food tastes like butter. This is a little bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. Butter isn't super common in Korea, and real butter is expensive ($8 for 2 cups). When I was exposed to delicious casseroles and biscuits, the butter taste was almost overwhelming (but also very tasty).
The last thing I really noticed was the diversity of people. There are a lot of foreigners here in Korea, but the great majority is still Korean. I have missed seeing lots of different shapes and colors of faces around me, and it was nice to blend in for a little while.
Being back in Korea is pretty normal, except it smells different than America. Even the soap smells different here. Also, the lovely smell of kimchi greeted me at the airport (I'm not kidding, I do like the smell of kimchi).
