While living in Ireland I heard the term repatriation a few times. Repatriation is the process of returning a person back to one's place of origin or citizenship. I heard it said that when a person returns to their home country that person may have difficulty with various things. In fact if you read about repatriation on wikipedia there is a section entitled overcoming repatriation which says: "Repatriation is often the ‘forgotten’ phase of the expatriation cycle; the emphasis for support is mostly on the actual period abroad. However, many repatriates report experiencing difficulties on return: one is no longer special, practical problems arise, new knowledge gained is no longer useful, etc. These difficulties are highly influenced by a number of factors including self-management, spouse's adjustment, time spent abroad and skill utilisation. What is crucial is that every individual perceives these factors in a different way."
When I heard about repatriation in Ireland I even heard about people reading books on how to enter back into their culture. I couldn't believe it! Returning to the U.S. was not going to be a problem for me at all. In fact over this last year I longed for nothing more. Maybe repatriation difficulties only affect people who do not wish to return to their country of origin or to people who have been away for much longer than I have been away for.
I have now been back here for about six weeks and there are a few things I can tell you. America is the land of plenty. We have so much here. I once heard on a radio show that the middle class level of Europe is equivalent to the poverty level in the U.S. in terms of standard of living. I cannot speak for all of Europe but my experience of living in Dublin confirms this. To repeat myself: we have so much here in America. Whatever you want. And it is affordable.
There are just a few small things I have had to adjust to being back in the U.S. The amount of sugar and salt used in food here is outrageous! I was prepared for things to be too sweet but I was very surprised by all the salt. Beyond these trivial matters I cannot complain one bit. America is the land that I love and I am so thankful to be home.
