The fallout.

All apologies for the massive lack of posting. In 50 words or less, I have been on vacation in Budapest/Croatia, packed up my apartment, then realized that I have, in fact, no plan for next year- things that, individually, do take up a lot of energy.

I had next year all lined up in Beirut, but seeing as there's been a mass exodus of foreign nationals out of Lebanon, looks like I'm not going to be taking my colonial sejour after all. As much as I would like to go to Cyprus, I'd rather not be taken there by an army helicopter.

Meanhwhile, I'm in Delray Beach, languishing. I had warned my parents that I would be going through post-European withdrawal and to take it easy on me.
I had hoped for a re-education in all things American; maybe we'd order pizza and go out to the shooting range, and my dad would buy an XXL wife beater, just for the occasion.

Instead, I came home to where, it became obvious, my europhilia was incubated. "Should we pick up a baguette on the way home?" dad asked in the car from the airport. I mumbled something about how technically, they should hardly be called proper baguettes. Once at home, I began talking about the war in Lebanon, and my mom flipped on the news. "Oh, we only watch BBC Worldnews anymore." No CNN. No FOX. Of course, The BBC.

Fine, so, they have the common sense to watch better TV media than what the US can produce. Maybe they'd take it easy on me for movies and TV shows. "I've been watching a lot of Gordon Ramsey's 'Kitchen Nightmares..'" mom continued. Flipping through the list of TiVoed shows, I learned that for all intents and purposes, our remote has been frozen on BBC America and the Independent Film Network.

As painful as it is to constantly be reminded what exactly I'm missing, it's lovely to be able to talk to my parents about my trip to Croatia, and their life in London when they were just married, and the superiority of Paris. I guess it's good to be home.