Home.

Jeez Louise, I've been home almost a month.

Sorry not to post sooner. Returning to a state of normality has been a pretty taxing experience, both physically and mentally.

Like the simple act of coming home. Fun story: while I felt fine during my last day in Buenos Aires, during the flight home I came down with a cough.

By the time I arrived in Philadelphia the next morning I had not only a nasty cough, but a snotty nose, clogged head, weakness and the shivers.

Basically every symptom of swine flu but a fever. I'm still amazed I wasn't tackled and tazered by security when I left the airport.

It was bad. I ended up missing my first day of work at the JCC, and it took me quite a while to recover from my faux swine flu (which I also passed on to my dad. He wasn't so happy that I came home after that).

And during one of my first healthy days, I started to get itchy. Contact with...something gave me a tasty case of contact dermatitis (probably spelled wrong, sorry!). This fun little illness looked like prickly heat, and made my arms and legs itch like crazy. The doctors still don't know what caused it.

My parents decided that I just have bad case of Argentine-itis and that I'm having an allergic reaction to America.

And I think they're a little right.

Little culture shocks just keep coming and coming. Like today I went to Panera with some co-workers and I ordered a small coffee. A small coffee in the States is the equivalent of like...a large at a Havanna in Buenos Aires. The large may acutally be a smidge smaller.

Just looking at that huge cup in my hand really made me want a little one there instead. Also Panera's coffee kind of sucked.

I miss you, Cafe Arenales!

Don't get me wrong, I do like being home. I'm get to see my friends and family every day, and am able to enjoy the little things I used to take for granted in the States. HBO! Peanut butter in every market! Cantaloupe in every fruit salad! SALAD! A shower I don't have to squeegie!!!!

Actually I really liked my squeegie-able shower. So scratch that one.

But I miss Buenos Aires'...everything. The city really changed me. For one thing, I definitely feel more independent. I don't need to rely on friends to make plans and enjoy myself...or speak the local language very well to accomplish things.

I've also learned that it's ok to be a little late, to screw the schedule and take things as they come (Argentina's so unpredictable that there's really no other way to take things), and to simply take everything a little slower. Especially meals :). So far as I know, you only live once so you better fucking enjoy it.

Minus the "so you better fucking enjoy it," it sounds like a Hallmark card. But it's true!

I'm sure lots of other pretentious college students say this, but I've never really felt completely at ease in the States. Possibly because I spend most of my time in Jersey...and it's Jersey, but I've always had the travel bug and I don't know why. And now more than ever I feel like a round peg trying to shove itself into a square hole. I'm the peg, America is the hole. I'll eventually be jammed in somehow, but I'll never truly fit.

But I'm ok with this. Because it means that even though I'm back in the States, I still have a little bit of Buenos Aires living on in my heart.

Sappiest. Post. Ever.