Culture Shock

Day after return to the US, woke up at 12 noon, in a daze, my surroundings are at once familiar and alien. It is good to be home, but my head's splitting from the shock; and in my tender moments of being fresh off the plane, I think:

*what happened to all the brown people everywhere? shoot, what happened to people at all? what happened to the cows & bicycles, dirt roads? what happened to all the noise?
*why does my room have 10 of everything i don't need? why's there so much clutter and not a lot of space?
*why are there so many cups and dishes? what's this plastic shit?
*why is everything elevated?
*why don't we just eat with our hands? why don't we eat on the floor? aw, why am i eating breakfast alone? why do we keep food refrigerated? shoot, it's frickin cold enough outside...
*why do we have to go far to buy food? shouldn't there be someone down the street selling it?
*what are all these papers with my name on it? how can you call the merging of two companies a marriage? *why do people talk so loud & so fast? and where are you going?
*whew! wireless internet is so fast!
*WHAT happened to all the temples and altars? what happened to all the colors?
*what happened to the trees & lillies that used to be in our front yard?
*the bananas aren't sweet!
*Dang! Our house is HUGE and it has so many rooms!
*we have a machine to wash our clothes? whoa!
*dang! i'm broke! and cingular wants HOW MUCH?! to use their cell phone?!
*Why does the acquisition of stuff make people happy?
*why do people lock their doors?

Hence do I begin the most challenging part of my journey.