By Emily Reisch and Jon Minor

We’re clinging to our time left in Jönköping, but the sand is sliding though the hourglass. Soon we’ll be on our way to Europe, then home, not knowing when, if ever, we’ll be in Sweden again.

Travelers have to go through culture shock twice – once shortly after arriving, and then when returning home.

When returning from abroad, it’s as if home has become the foreign country. You notice and appreciate things you’ve taken for granted before. After returning from Europe’s crowded cities and narrow streets, South Dakota’s wide streets, open spaces and even lawns, look strange.

We’re looking forward to seeing our families and friends again. We’ll get to see how much Jon’s nephews and our friends’ children have grown up. Saying goodbye to our friends and host families here will be hard though. We may never see them again.

It’ll be nice to sit at the Safari Lounge on a slow night and have a $1 beer with our friends. We definitely won’t miss the insane price of a drink or paying entrance fees.

We’re going to be glad to have certain items – Doritos, Listerine, and Ziplock bags are all things we can’t get here. Not necessities by far, but we’re looking forward to plastic bags that seal again.

We’ll be happy to be in our own house again, but we’ll miss the sauna, balcony and view of the lake and beach we have now.

Being able to understand every word people are saying around you will be different. Finally, we’ll be able to read a newspaper or watch the news on TV. However, we won’t be expanding our language skills anymore.

The modern school, with its fountains, lounges and 24/7 access cards, is something we won’t like leaving. We’ll really miss the international atmosphere. We’ll trade riding our bikes 10 minutes to school for driving, then searching for a parking space for 20 minutes before class.

Shopping is going to be totally different. We can go to Wal-mart for everything we need, instead of searching though many small shops looking for items. It will be nice to not have to go to a pharmacy for aspirin. Cold medicine isn’t even sold in Sweden.

At home, we can go grocery shopping at 3 a.m. if we like. In Jönköping, all of the shops in the main street close at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, and aren’t open at all on Sunday. We were shocked the first time we went downtown one Saturday afternoon and everything was closing.

We’ll be glad to have a higher level of customer service again. In the stores, a salesperson will never ask if you need help. If you’d like to try on clothes, you must put them back on the rack yourself. It’s not really a big issue, but it’s nice for the store to provide a small service for you.

We won’t have to worry about remembering to plug in the power converter before the cord. A couple of our appliances found out the hard way that 220V doesn’t work with 110V devices.

All of these things will be novelties upon our return, but soon we’ll want to trade our everyday lives for traveling abroad again.

Being at home is comfortable. Everywhere we go in South Dakota is comfortable. Traveling is about stepping outside of your comfort zone and understanding something foreign to you. We’ll miss the excitement of experiencing new places.

In a sense, we’re actually only beginning our true travels. Most of our time in Sweden has been spent studying. When classes are finished, we’ll really get to start the traveling part of our trip. We still have many weeks of future adventures to share with you.