Reverse culture shock:

I didn't really think this would happen since I was only gone for three months. But it did and I imagine it will even more when I get back to Chicago, when I feel like my vacation is finally over.

It's everything from not having taxes included in prices, to having people talk to you in the streets, to hearing an American accent and wanting to start up a conversation on that basis alone (nope, Kathleen, an American accent isn't that unusual in Atlanta). I do miss London. I miss feeling safe when I walk around in the dark, Tesco diet Lemonade, good public transportation, the quiet standoffishness of Londoners and a hundred other mundane and not so mundane things. Everyone here is so loud and complains so much, I just finally learned to eat the European way, I want the bars to close earlier so I can go out earlier...

Realistically, there are things I won't miss about London. The weather, the people who would never say what they meant, the stores closing at 6 o'clock on Sundays. But right now I wish I were back in the flat on Gilbert Street, thinking about a night at Three Tuns or the Marlborough Head, rather than sitting here really excited that my laptop is finally working for two minutes, hoping I get a chance to see N-- before she has to go back to work again.