Reunited [with America (fuck yeah)] and it feels so good

Oh man. The first thing my parents did for me when they picked me up was call my brothers and order cheeseburgers and custard. Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.

The weather was far less cloudy than they had forecasted in Chicago, so that was nice for the landing and coming home in general. I stayed up far later than I was able to manage when I came home from Germany in undergrad, and the jet lag only hit me a little bit yesterday (whence I was able to make it to bar time, so clap for me). It's great to be back here and conscious, and the entire family is here for about a month since the brother won't be starting his job in Minnesota until mid-June. Family-tacular bonding time is upon us.

Frankly, I'm glad I did this study abroad so I could really appreciate all the good stuff I've got going on here. Susan bought me not one, but TWO of my favorite reduced-fat natural peanut butters (I'm a freak, yes), and she loved the salad cream that I brought her, heh. I've managed to talk to a good chunk of the people that I missed the most while I was gone, and may be making it down to Chicago to visit others very soon. I'm also heading out to Madison for the latter part of the weekend, where I cannot WAIT to go to Dotty's and get a real, delicious burger. And something fried.

It's excellent to be somewhere where it's possible to hop in a car and drive anywhere you need to go (though I will admit that I miss having reliable public transportation available. Too bad, so sad).