Culture shock

So I just got back from shopping at Asda- it's a Walmart spinoff here in the UK that has a store near where we were looking for other stuff. So we thought we'd just go in and pick some stuff up. They have very interesting international foods and I saw loads of Muslim women there, and people of all nationalities- it was a refreshing change from the very British white screaming children Tesco experience that I normally have. :) I think I'll try to shop there more often, because it's just less stressful in general. Anyway Asda didn't have the type of laundry detergent that I normally get, and I wanted to try to price compare on the powder versus the liquid....talk about setting your head spinning. It turns out that they're basically all the same price per load. So as I'm standing there sniffing the various powder boxes to see if I like the smell this Sting song comes on their internal radio. Now I was already feeling a little culture stress from the stupid detergent, but I happened to buy the CD that this song is on in a market in Cambodia in 2002, and I listened to that CD a lot that summer, especially one week that I stayed in the guest house and babysat it while the workers were away somewhere. Anyway the combination of the song and the stress from the powder hit me like a brick, and I had a total Cambodia flashback, as if I was right there, listening to this song in the guest house and feeling the warm evening breeze from the window....it was like I was right there. I could smell the guest house and see the furniture so clearly...I could almost feel the bed I was sitting on. It was more like a train wreck really- for just that moment there I was in Cambodia, a place that I love dearly, and then bamn- here I am standing in the detergent aisle at Asda in the UK. This isn't the first time I've had that happen, but it still catches me off guard. I still feel a little numb actually- some part of me just doesn't want to believe that I'm here in the UK in reality. I last left Cambodia 6 years ago, but it's still so real, and the fact is that I really miss it still. If you've never had culture shock, and you see a foreign person standing in an aisle at Meijer or Kroger or where ever with a very glazed look and possibly tears welling up, cut them some slack- it's probably just culture shock, and who knows what far away place that is dear to their heart is so real in their mind's eye in that moment. If you've had one of these moments yourself then you know what I'm talking about- it's the price we pay for giving our lives to a culture for a season, how ever long, and although it is SO worth it, it comes with a price of leaving some part of yourself there. I know I'll be ok in a day or 2, but until then I'll stay away from Asda and Tesco and be especially lifting up Cambodia and all my friends there.