Back in America

I've been back in the good 'ol USA for about a week now, and have used the "cold" weather (low 50's, I'm a wimp) as an excuse to watch a lot of daytime TV and to eat a lot of really great food. Along the way I've made some pretty astute observations about some great and some not so great things about being back for the holidays.

1. Whole Foods really is the greatest thing on earth. This is my version of heaven:

Not my picture- from a WP article

Seriously, I've eaten here three times since coming back and had an embarrassing amount of "salad" crammed into my box each time. I have salad in quotes because I rarely get lettuce at Whole Foods-- it's way more about the different types of tofu (I have never figured out how they make it taste awesome and I make it taste terrible), random quinoa salads and mac and cheese. Sydney could really use a Whole Foods-- the whole lure of being healthy and then finding out you can eat like an organic pig is pretty fantastic.

2. Clothing is cheap. Like ridiculously so. I guess that's why my closet still looks like it's full when I've got 50 lbs of stuff in suitcases to show that it should be empty. Girl's gotta have variety but coming back and seeing that I can get a pair of pants at Loft for $15 or a sweater for $20 is making me realize two things: 1. I need to donate a lot of stuff before moving and 2. Too bad the summer stuff isn't at stores right now, or I'd stock up so I wouldn't have to buy things in Sydney.

3. I've turned into a coffee snob. If you recall, I had a terrible time letting go of the Starbucks addiction, but I'd really come to love my skim cappuccinos  It turns out that for some reason America doesn't add the chocolate shavings to the top of a cappuccino  At first I thought it was just an oversight by the tired barista at the green giant one day, but I also stopped at Misha's in Alexandria one day and got the same experience.

Um, that's a bold statement.

I guess Wikipedia does say that cappuccinos MAY contain chocolate, but still-- the chocolate is the best part!

 4. American TV = I die. Gotta be a reason we're all fatties over here, right? After plowing through all of the back episodes of The New Girl, The Mindy Project (get on that Sydney, stat), Glee and everything HGTV (again Sydney, how bout a little House Hunters?) I'm surprised I don't have bedsores. So many options, so little time! I'm not sure who does the Sydney lineups, but the options usually are repeats of the same show over and over again. 

The only ironic thing here is that Homeland is not on a premium channel in Sydney. I don't have Showtime here in the states so I'll have to go back to Sydney to watch the season finale!

I wonder what other differences I'll notice after a year of being away?