yes mom, people die in places from things.

I cleared out my facebook friends list a few weeks ago and it was way too satisfying. Now if only deleting people from your circle was that easy in real life…

Two people should have gotten the boot but didn’t.  They fit the criteria of “don’t really know” but I follow their travels with way too much envy so the “don’t really care” didn’t apply.  These two girls didn’t seem to be particularly loaded at the time when I met them, so I have NO IDEA how they can spend that kind of money on travel without a job and in their millionth year of grad school.  They must be hookers.  Being drug dealers is a possibility too since I saw a post about traveling to Columbia for who knows what reason.

I bring this old deletion news up because I stared at a map today and felt unaccomplished with my travels.

Comparatively, I’ll admit I’ve been to a lot of places.  Through all this, I’m kind of over the whole “Europe” thing, even though we may or may not be going back there this December.  I know, I know, I know, that sounds really obnoxious of me.  Sorry.  The truth is, my parents just aren’t as adventurous with travel as I’d like to be and they’re the ones footing the bill.  I’ll take what I can get and love every minute of it, and once I have the money I’ll do things my way.

Even if I could convince them of my plans, I can’t really see my mother going on a hiking trip in South America or the Far East and I certainly can’t see her doing anything remotely resembling the travels in The Darjeeling Limited (yeah…laugh all you want…but it’d be cool).  She watches the news too much and is paranoid about everything.  In fact, I mentioned something about someone going to africa and she was like “PEOPLE DIE THERE!”  So I guess Kruger Nat’l Park is out of the question?  Dang.  A friend went there in elementary school and brought me back this weird green elephant thing and smarties and I was kind of sold.

ANYWAYS.

Maybe I’ll update this later with my travel “wish list” and a paypal account you can donate to.

…right

Oh, and  my mom is cool, but she DID say something like that.

my home, the hostel

After 4 months abroad, I’m home and it feels like I’m just in another hostel. Although I already insanely miss my life overseas, there are a few everyday “luxuries” I am glad to have again:

I don’t mentally convert pounds/euros/whatever to dollars and cringe every time I pay for something.
I don’t have to wear the same thing twice because laundry is either too expensive or non existent.
I have a bath tub now.
I don’t have to have permanent hat hair because it’s not cold here.
The internet actually works.
Everyday phone calls don’t cost a kidney anymore.
Cans of coke don’t cost 4 dollars.
Mexican Food.

a few things about Europe:

Some of the washing machines over here take forever, as in 3 hours. They like their clothes really clean, it makes up for the fact that they haven’t washed them in 4 months and haven’t showered in two.
When you ask for something and they say it’s “finished” they usually mean that they have run out of the thing you are asking for.
Boxing Day/St Stephen’s Day/Dec 26th is not SALE day like it is in America. Everything is pretty much shut down on the 24th and nothing opens until the 27th. It’s nice, but not when you’re traveling during that time. Merry Christmas.
When someone says it’s “not possible” it is in fact possible, because you are usually already doing it. They just mean it’s not permitted but they don’t know that word yet.
the Europeans really like switches and buttons. Sometimes, a plug has a switch by it that you have to turn on to use. The on/off switch of the electrical device is not sufficient to turn on/off the appliance. Besides, why have one button when you can have two?
On London escalators, there are signs every meter that tell you to stand on the right so that people in a rush can get by. Every time you get off the subway they tell you to “mind the gap” between the platform and the car so you don’t fall. There are signs to tell you which side of the stairs you should ascend and descend on. However, all hell brakes loose when you try to get on/off the underground car and everyone just pushes each other because there are no signs or recordings to tell you what to do.
It’s true that the Irish are all drunks. There are even TV commercials trying to get people to know when they have had too much. One of these includes a rather disgusting vomit scene.
Germany is awesome, but it’s still creepy about how obsessed with perfection they are. Nazi party anyone?
There is only once country that refuses to recognize the existence of food from other countries. That place would be Italy.
Salzburg Austria likes to capitalize on a movie that was hardly filmed there and most Austrians have never even seen. I’m talking about the sound of music.
The Scots didn’t fight for their freedom from England like the Irish did. It took them long enough. I mean, it’s not like the Brit monarchy means anything anymore like it did when we had our little revolution.
Spaniards are nuts. They say they don’t speak English when you ask them in Spanish or English, and when you speak to them in English they understand you and then answer you in Spanish…now that’s just bad for tourism. Oh, and the whole “Catalonia is not Spain” bit…fine, start a revolution then you can quit complaining.

Even after all of this, I don’t want to go home. The lack of reality I experience here is utter bliss.