US Trip: Expectations vs. Reality

I’m back! The past few weeks I’ve taken a hiatus from posting because a) it is summer break and my kids are full on and b) we took our first trip back to the United States after moving eighteen months ago. I’m going to do a number of posts on our trip back, but I thought I’d start with my list of expectations vs. reality about this visit.

Expectation #1: I can’t wait for Tex-Mex! Chips and salsa, guacamole, and all that goodness were the first things I wanted to eat.

Reality: Our first dinner we ate at a local Mexican place down from our hotel in the suburbs of Houston. The kids and I devoured the complimentary chips and salsa like it was the end of times, and then I was presented with a plate with enough food to feed four people. Then, two nights later, we went out to ANOTHER Tex-Mex establishment with some friends and received the same massive quantity of food. After these two meals, I didn’t eat Tex-Mex for the rest of the trip. The food wasn’t nearly as good as I remember, the quantities were out of control, and I didn’t even want to look at another tortilla chip. And there was some gastro-intestinal distress that I won’t go into.

I did venture into my old favorite taco joint - Torchy’s Tacos - near the end of the trip with my son, a devout egg-bean-and-cheese taco kid. I discovered that the best taco in the world, the Dirty Sanchez, has been downgraded to the secret menu. I was able to order one, and that single taco lived up to my expectations and then some. If I could bring any restaurant franchise to New Zealand, Torchy’s would be it.

Expectation #2: Yippee for Amazon Prime! I’m going to do all the shopping!

Reality: I love Amazon Prime. It makes life so much easier. Instead of driving around town looking for an odd list of items like 48” black shoelaces, Yumbox lunchboxes, and three different pairs of jeans that I might like, but I’m not sure, I can order them all from the comfort of my phone, have things show up the next day, and send back two out of the three pairs of jeans that don’t make the cut at no cost. Even better, since we left, Amazon has changed their return procedure so you don’t even need to repack and print a shipping label anymore. They emailed me a QR code, and I took my unboxed return items to a UPS store. The UPS store scanned the code, printed the label, and slapped it on my returns. It was so easy.

However, after eighteen months of researching the best way to make any purchase, Amazon Prime was almost too easy. I know that’s the point, but my thoughtless consuming skyrocketed in the US. That definitely wasn’t a good thing. But still, I really miss the speed and ease of Amazon.

Expectation #3: Everyone is worked up over politics in the US.

Reality: No one discusses politics AT ALL. I was shocked by this one. In New Zealand, the US political situation is discussed constantly, but in the US, my take is that it is just too polarising and people are worn out. It seems like a self preservation technique to cut out all of the noise and news coming out of Washington D.C. and ignore the giant elephant in the room. I thought the beginning of the impeachment trial would result in some comments, but the topic was clearly taboo and not appropriate to bring up in polite conversation.

Expectation #4: Driving on the right hand side of the road would be easy.

Reality: The first couple of days of driving on the other side of the road weren’t totally easy. I found myself thinking about which lane I needed to turn into a lot more than I thought I would, and there were some awkward moments in parking lots when I found myself on the wrong side of the road. However, the switch back wasn’t nearly as hard or harrowing as learning to drive on the left hand side of the road in New Zealand. Even better, when I got back behind the wheel in Auckland, I was able to easily switch back into Kiwi driving mode.

Speaking of driving, I was surprised at how much more aggressive Texas drivers seemed than your average Kiwi driver. Maybe it was because I was out of practice driving next to big, jacked up pickup trucks, but there seemed to be a lot of angry people in a hurry.

One of the best things about driving in the US are the large, luxuriously sized parking spaces (necessary to accommodate the aforementioned giant trucks._ Man I miss those huge spaces! Not once did I need to make multiple turns to squeeze into a spot while in the United States like I do frequently in New Zealand. It was dreamy.

Expectation #5: I would feel 100% confident about our move or 100% sure I wanted to move back.

Reality: Neither turned out to be true. I was sure a trip back to the US would make me feel like all of the hard work and struggle was worth it or I would feel so homesick after a visit that I wouldn’t want to go back to New Zealand. No matter how wonderful New Zealand is, there’s been a constant whisper in the dark bits of my mind that we are absolutely nuts for making this move and should get back to America as soon as possible. And even though I adore Auckland, there is a persistant what if? Unfortunately, I didn’t get any clarity.

It was wonderful to be in the company of friends where the well of shared experiences is deep and we can talk about all sorts of things. I don’t have that same village here in Auckland. But those same friends told me stories of their children’s experiences at school in the US which reaffirmed reasons why we wanted to leave in the first place.

I loved the ease and variety of shopping in America, but unfortunately, one of the things I had to shop for was the best urgent care clinic to take my daughter when she woke up on the Saturday before we were set to fly home with an earache. Clearly we needed to get that looked at to make sure she was safe to fly for fifteen hours. After an hour of online research and several phone calls to different places to gather pricing, we ended up spending over US$200 to learn that she had a lot of earwax built up. While we were figuring this out, I would’ve gladly traded the kids’ new lunch boxes - easily obtained in the US - for free healthcare in New Zealand.

With that being said, I was immensely happy to get home. To sleep in my own bed. To wake up to a stunning Auckland sunrise, and to start my first full day back with a dog walk on the beach and a delicious, fresh coffee. (The coffee in New Zealand is about a million times better than anything I’ve ever had in the US.) Am I packing up to move back to the US? Not any time soon. I’ll stick with the occasional visit for now.