America is the greatest country in the world...

It's good to be back in the land of efficiency and customer service - a place where businesses do not close from 1pm-4pm every day and all day on Sundays, where water from the tap is safe for consumption, where taking a shower and running the dishwasher does not result in a 24-hour blackout, and where the bank takes 'ponsibility for the ATM that ate your debit card, rather than leaving you without a way to get cash for at least 2 weeks. By the second week of our trip I found myself condemning the "charming" intricacies of the European lifestyle with the passion of a disgruntled low-level government worker, drunkenly extolling the under-appreciated beauty of American currency, and gazing fondly upon a girl drinking a Budweiser at a small Italian bar with foolish and unabashed pride. Our return home was horrifying though, invovling 32 hours of travel (stretched out from what was supposed to be 21 hours), in which every single one of our flights was delayed EXCEPT the final one which was supposed to bring us home to Louisville, and which left promptly after our seats had been resold to stand-by passengers since we couldn't make it to the gate 10 minutes before departure time because we were still stuck on the plane coming in from New York, which left 2 hours late due to the mysterious absence of the entire Delta flight crew assigned to fly the plane.

Anyway, it's good to be back and the moral of the story is that America is the greatest country in the world and everyone wants to be us. Here's the proof: silly Germans

Aight, I'm going to go get in my mom's giant Land Rover and guzzle some gas on the way to Circuit City to buy my dad a Father's Day present while drinking a DIET coke (not Coke Light, mind you) filled with a ton of ice....all on a Sunday afternoon.