As many of you may have realized, us gappers will be returning to your homes in about one week. While we are all extremely excited to see each and every one of your beautiful faces, we are also a bit unsure of how we are going to deal with the counter-culture shock. After nearly three months of cold showers, outdoor “bathrooms” and gallo pinto, the North American lifestyle will simply be confusing. Here are a few tips for you that will help make our transition go as smoothly as possible:
1. Don’t get annoyed if we plant ourselves in front of a screen to binge-watch Netflix… We have been away from our shows for far too long! Is Orange still The New Black? Are The Housewives still Desperate? Is it actually Always Sunny in Philadelphia?
2. When you go to hug us in the airport, please do not comment on our smell… Not only have we been sitting on a sweaty airplane, but we do not have any clean laundry, nor have we showered nearly as much as you have hoped (my personal shower-count currently sits at 23).
3. Don’t be alarmed if the trash bins in your fancy bathrooms quickly become filled with used toilet paper… We have been brain-pounded repeatedly on the importance of not flushing paper down the Central American pipes, a habit that may now be unbreakable.
4. Remember that meal-times are for TALKING not TEXTING… After three months without cell phones, we have relearned how lovely it is to talk to real people instead of a little bright screen. Who knew how amazing conversing with each other could be?
5. We may need some time to decompress before being bombarded with questions… We have all had an amazing trip, we indeed did learn a lot, most of us probably cannot pin-point a favorite moment, and yes, we have eaten too much rice and beans– hopefully those answers keep you satisfied for a few hours.
I hope you have enjoyed and benefitted from this handful of advice, though it all may seem insignificant, we all would greatly appreciate your best efforts of cooperation. We miss you all, and we love you even more! We cannot wait to compare our stellar tans to your pasty winter skin, you are all phenomenally wonderful family members/ friends for following and supporting our wild journey all this time!
Much love,
Fluzie Sasserman (…aka Lucie)
