...because I'm American.

I'll actually have an update in a few days... Once I'm moved in to a real "home" & can think in a more eloquent manner, and can post from a 15" screened laptop, as opposed to a smartphone! Anyway, it wasn't until my 3 month period of living in France during my second term abroad that I realized: I'm American. I mean, I always knew I was... American passport, SS#, student loans accumulating up the wazoo... But I'd always been "Polish-American". Granted, in America I was considered "Polish", in Poland, "American". But living abroad made me realize that certain aspects of my daily life reflected (quite vividly) the fact that I am an American. I think I may post little things that I re-notice on here. These are things that one may not realize until she is abroad... Like culture shock, but not as intense. I mean, all stores but 2 being closed on a Sunday is NOT as bad as being in the desert with no clean water, you can survive. Haha. Airport security. Well, luggage in general. Going through TSA was quite the production. All of my electronics had been taken out separately from my carryons. Or so I thought! It turns out that my laptop, kindle, iPhone, camera, and chargers had been taken out... But I forgot about my external hard drive. You know, that giant hunk of plastic with all that computer power?? Yup. Oops! Once that went through repacking was a bitch! But, it's cool. They didn't realize that I'd also forgotten about the tweezers in my makeup kit. Then again, what's tweezers when you think some middle-class white chick from CT has a bomb in her Red polka dot Cath Kidston carry-on? Another thing, all of my cute cases from Marc Jacobs, longchamps, cathkidston, vera Bradley... American. I'm obsessed with my smartphone. That pretty much sums it up. Granted, I got rid of data on my American iPhone almost 2 years ago, so now it's rekindlin my iPhone addiction. It'll wear off soon enough. Until then, I'll continue talking on my FB Messanger app, skype app, listen to z100 via my I heart radio app, and stay up-to-date with my nytimes and CNN apps. Homesick? Not when you've got the Internet! You should've done that yesterday. Maybe it's a NE Coast thing... But I definitely need to work on my patience a bit more. I just get into city mode and forget, sometimes, that not ALL cities are like (the greatest one out there. #empirestateofmind) NYC. Sometimes at shopping malls, you'll just have to deal with people walking at the speed of escargot... In the street people may not know how to pass you effectively. It's okay. The world won't end. And sometimes, just sometimes, getting your phone to finally get service may take 5 hours, instead of 30 minutes, because the sales associate fills the "blonde" stereotype... Gotta love me a discount/ My hair is not okay. After getting a bank account, a phone & an umbrella (key items to have when establishing oneself in the "real" world, I needed a blowdryer... Only because my travel one basically exploded. So I opted for the professional one. It was on sale! 31€20 was a deal! (even though, the night before I'd seen a commercial on tv for one that cost 9€95... Hi, exchange rate!) but! It's an investment. And it brings up yet another "I'm American" factor: bargain hunting/discounts. Damnit, Capitalism, you've become internalized. Hi, eldctronics, all my luggage, and everything I just HAD to buy upon arrival! I don't know how I feel about these things, they're just observations. They make me laugh at myself. But, in the end, if you can't laugh at yourself, what can you laugh at? xoxo