A Few Things That Make Me Happy

After being home for more than two weeks (my longest stay in the country since May!), I've come to honestly enjoy the US again. Before I came back, both while in Latin America and Europe, I was dreading being not only back at home in my small town in Connecticut, but being back in the US in general. I realized, though, that I took some things for granted while being away. Here is a list, in no particular order, of the things I most enjoy about being back in my homeland:

1. Hot showers
2. Using toilet paper
3. Target
4. Running outside without being looked at funny
5. Tabloids/E! News/Bravo/any entertainment gossip guilty pleasure
6. Cheese-any and all kinds
7. My bank and the use of a debit card almost anywhere-not having to pay $5 every time I need cash really cuts costs
   
8. The Daily Show
9. Rush hour commute-at first I wanted to curl up in a ball instead of being thrust up against the metro doors in DC and NY while loads of people tried to jam into the tiny subway car between the hours of 7-9 a.m. and 4-7 p.m.-even though the next train would be along in one minute-but after a few times I started to look forward to the business people in the business attire, and the standard unspoken code that one must ALWAYS stand to the right while on the escalator so people can walk by on the left
10. My clothes, my glorious clothes! Now I am not entirely superficial nor fashion-obsessed in the least, but living out of a backpack for 8 months, wearing the same three shirts and one pair of pants day after day after day can REALLY get to a person. When I got home the first thing I did was kneel down in front of my closet and go over each and every article of clothing and thank it for being there and apologizing for having forgotten about it. Picking out what I want to wear has become the best part of my day because it's like I've acquired an entirely new wardrobe without having to spend a cent!