Mashed up Playdough- that's what I am

One of my roommates from Ukraine has been in language school in SC this semester and came up to spend the night last night before flying home today. We were talking about the debriefing week that I'll be going to in CO in Feb. and some of the things that were helpful to her in her transition back to life in the US. One of the things that she said sounds a bit silly, but makes perfect sense to me. Before you leave for another country, you are just regular old you. You are yellow playdough. But then you move to another country. You learn a new language, new culture, new habits- all to fit in. And you change. You are now blue playdough. But when you move back to your home culture,worlds collide. Now you are mashed up yellow, blue and green playdough. The colors are all there and can't be separated, because you have changed and they're all a part of you now.Yellow playdough doesn't understand you completely, nor does blue playdough. You're kind of in a special little niche with all the other mixed-up colors out there. That's me- just a ball of mashed up multi-color playdough, working my way back into assimilation in a yellow playdough world.