Back in the States... A few notes

M and I made it back to the states last night and bee-lined to the nearest Rite Aid to stock up on cold medicine. Although, being back in the states alone seems to have made our cold symptoms subside slightly. Not sure if the pressure is just off, or we are completely numb after our 12 hour flight home from Munich. (Probably a little of both... but that was a really looooong flight.)

Anyway, here are some things that I have come to appreciate more now that we've been to Europe.

The English keyboard: because France had its own keyboard... and Italy also had its own, it took me twice as long to type anything in English because things like ?, ", ', and @ were not in their traditional spaces. You have to realize that words like can't and won't are not used in French or Italian. So the ' was sorely missed.

Showers: While we had a shower stall in Italy, I barely fit into it. And that's saying something. The shower in France was pretty much a bathtub with a detachable nozzle that sprayed you while you tried to stand up and not get everything wet. The shower in Italy wouldn't stay on long enough so you could finish cleaning yourself.

Toilet Seats: I'm not talking about the paper liners used for public toilets. (Those I knew wouldn't be there.) I'm talking about the actual SEAT from the toilets were missing from 85% of all the public toilets I visited. So imagine going to the bathroom in the middle of the night and your spouse, significant other, or male roommate failed to put the seat down. THAT'S how it was in Europe. Luckily all the hotel toilets had one... which I found strange.

Vegetables: It's nice to live in California and have a great supply of organic fruits and vegis from local farms. In Rome and Paris: not so much. I maybe had one salad the entire time we were there. It was sad. I missed my greens. But we carbo-loaded like crazy. And with that, I think I'll make Caesar Salads tonight for dinner.

Cold Medicine: I'll have to admit - the Romans make a decent cough drop. But the rest of their supply - forget it. Not only did I have to buy multiple items for each symptom, but nothing really worked. I guess that says something about our drug market out here. We've probably made everything so strong out here that anything else fails to help.

Clean laundry: We didn't get a chance to do laundry while in France or Italy. And for that, we stunk. It was bad. I mean, I can usually wear a shirt 2 or more times before washing... but for some reason, it was pretty terrible living in a suitcase without clean clothes. Luckily our in-laws spared us the trip home in the clothes we washed ashore in. And folding laundry has never felt (or smelled) so good.

Home cooking: I admit I've gotten pretty lazy with the kitchen lately. But after eating at cafes and sandwich shops for the last week, I'm pretty excited to bust open the cook books again. One can only survive on sandwiches and crepes for so long.

Since I was so rushed while in Paris and Rome, I'll probably go back and edit my previous entries so that they make sense. (Spell check was also non-existent in these countries.) Plus we have 300 photos to go through, edit and upload. Hooray! Thank goodness for taking the rest of the week off.