Back in the Land of Free Water

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I have been back in the U S of A for about 6 days now and Europe seems so far away. I've been trying to explain my experiences to everyone at home with no luck because there is no way to do such a thing. I can never give someone the full picture of what I saw and felt but it's not like anyone wants me to bore them to death with 5 hours of talk so this is okay. When I arrived back in America my first thought was Chinese food and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. First of all I hardly ever eat Chinese food so this was odd. Travel can mess with your brainwaves. Other than this I had nothing I felt like I had really missed. I wasn't jumping up and down screaming U S A U S A! Until I realized I had set foot back on a land that gives you FREE water at resturants or even if you just ask for a cup. AND bread is free of charge as well if you are buying a meal. I about went out and bought an Old Navy t-shirt with a American flag on it that all the 50 yr old American tourists wear. Seriously free water is the best thing about this country. If it ever gets to a point where this ends then I am moving. Well I am moving anyways so do with the water what you will America.
Uppsala is expecting me in 2 weeks which might as well be 2 days because I feel as thought my time is spread so thin. So many preparations to do and people to see and places to go. When I stop and think long and hard about what is before me I get a twinge of nervousness. I wonder if classes will be above my head and if the other students will be friendly. I wonder what kind of food I will eat and if the dark days and snowy nights will drive me to the loony bin. But this only makes me catch my breathe for a second because my excitment overtakes all. To go out on my own in a foreign country, god damn this is the ultimate. I will be changed in many ways and I am ready for this with open arms. New experiences are what fuel me and without them I would become stagnant which is something that frightens me even more than heading off to a new unknown place.
Placerville has been nice. It has been so good to catch up with old friends and see my family but I know that I am meant to leave. Sometimes I get a feeling like a hamster on its wheel just doing the same things over and over and over. I come home to Placerville and I do the same things and have the same conversations and while Placerville is home to me and always will be I just need to go away from it. But I will miss how beautiful it is, especially the river and places like Apple Hill and I will miss my friends I've grown up with and who know everything about me.
2007 has been the best year of my life thus far. Without a doubt. Going to New Orleans taught me so much about myself and what I want to do in the world and the people I want to surround myself with. Italy and Greece showed me how little I know of the world and how much of it is open to me. Sweden will be amazing. This has been and I'm sure will be a year for growth and I'll take it. The good and the bad. Well....maybe not the fact that Sweden seems devoid of peanut butter. I might have some trouble with that, but I may sneak a jar overseas and at night( and when I say night I mean 5pm) I will eat it with a spoon and cure any sort of homesickness I may have. Or I will just mix it with Nutella and die of a heart attack because I eat far too much Nutella for a body of my size.
I thank my lucky stars Nutella is a worldwide product.
god bless globalization.

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