Saturday, October 31, 2009

Back in the US(S)A

So, hi! I'm back in the States. I've been back in the States for a month now, but first I was jetlagged and busy seeing family and friend, and now so much time has passed that I'm not really sure what to say other than, yeah, I'm back in the US. The first week back was surreal and I kept pointing out mundane things like not being given a wet napkin at a restaurant or people speaking English and going, "That's so weeeeeird!" When I first got back to the US, still in the airport at San Fransisco waiting for my connection to Charlotte, I got so flustered by the rampant use of English around me that I had to retreat behind my headphones, but for the most part I've re-acclimated to life in America.

I haven't done too much since I got home. I've been exercising like a fiend (I'm trying to run a few miles five days a week), playing tennis (for the first time in nearly a decade) and playing an obscene amount of Wii Mario Kart (my new goal in life in to beat the snot out of my brother at least once before I die). I've visited friends in Chapel Hill and Knoxville over weekends and seen my brother in Winston Salem a few times. I'm also constantly reading everything in sight. After a year of not having a library and having to methodically plan how fast and how much I could read so I wouldn't overshoot my book budget, I'm reveling in the ability to read a book a day and be able to get more, for FREE, whenever I want.

I also got to watch the leaves change (including one veeeeery long road trip through the mountains during the peek weekend), which I missed last year.

Fall Colors

I'm currently in on a proper vacation to visit a friend in New York. I took the Amtrak to Washington DC yesterday and I leave for New York on November 4th. I will say traveling is substantially easier when you can understand the language.

The Capitol
It's good to be home!