We got back into Fresno the evening of July 29th and sleepily stumbled into a surreal familiarity.  Greeted by family and friends, the simplest luxuries were taken in with new appreciation.  Being gone only a month I found everybody and everything was the same but I am different.  Sliding back into my role as the same person as before has been hard; the small annoyances of before to the everyday grind seem so silly with this new perspective-which is a joy and a curse.  Yes, I deeply appreciate what I have (clean water, family, job, house, etc.) but that life of simplicity, travel and new experience has gripped my soul harder than anything before.  

My first few weeks back I've been having a blast being with family and friends and appreciating them more than ever before.  Chris had a gig with Acoustic Highway (boy was he happy to play his guitar again!) and school has started back up.  Photographically, I have started to take photos of the people and places I had previously taken for granted; being in awe of a foreign place has made me realize that (duh) my home is foreign to others- what is commonplace to me might be wildly unimaginable to somebody else!  So there are photos of the my co-workers, the meter man giving out tickets, traffic to find a parking space, my teachers and so on.  This is the life I've fallen into so I will show it to all!  xoxo, emily