While watching the Discovery Channel today I found out that at full throttle a monster truck gets 75 feet per gallon.

Awesome.

I'm home. Sleeping in my own bed. Crapping in my own toilet. Life is good.

Here are some random thoughts collected during the afterglow of my trip:
I saw 22 cities in 27 days. I think next time I'll go and only see a few things at a much slower pace.

I was hoping to get away from all of the shite music we have here, but NOOOO, they have all the same crap in Europe.

Next time I will spend less of the trip sober, as I have come to appreciate red wine even more than before. I will also not babysit anyone who has too much of their favorite intoxicant. Being responsible sucks. I will be the drunkard thank you very much.

My New Year's resolution was to slow down and enjoy life, and certain parts of this trip definitely helped me understand how to do that. I think I gained and used my work ethic during my school years and it served me well. Now I need to chill the fuck out and perfect my relaxation ethic. I need to appreciate and enjoy life. I'm getting better at it, but I still feel the urge from my work ethic to work work work. It's kind of hard to turn it off when it's served me so well. I think I'm finding a balance though which is nice.

Variety is the spice of life. Thank you Mr Blocher. While I knew this before, it's been reemphasized lately. I am happier when I'm not doing the same thing all the time. Even a little variety makes me happy.

Taking a break from life lets you see your life in ways you wouldn't have been able to before, and come up with ways to improve it. A pseudo third-person perspective can do wonders.

Coming back to the US reenforced my disdain for malls, SUVs, and the American Small Penis Syndrome.

Two things I missed most about the US- smoking laws and the lack of diesel cars. In Europe *everyone* smokes *everywhere*. I hate smoking. Also, most of the cars are diesel which makes all the sizeable cities smell like ass, as well as burn your throat.

As I said before I have a better respect for good red wine and good food. There's nothing like a two hour lunch in a small Italian beach town.

Friends and family are very important to me. Screw seeing the sights, I had way more fun hanging out with friends and meeting new people. Meeting new people is also important, see the comment about variety being the spice of life.

It's OK to spend money. Damn my work ethic- saving money is boring. If you're going to work your ass off, you damn well better do something worthwhile with your paycheck. See the comment about good food and good wine.

My girlfriend rules.
I had plenty of time on trains to analyze our relationship, and I think I boiled it down to three words fairly well. (The three above)
Now if I could only kidnap her and bring her back to California...

American male fashion (especially for the office) is bland and repetetive. I can't find anywhere to buy clothes that 20 people in my office don't already own. Along the same lines, fashion in Santa Cruz is boring. Now I'm not suddenly a fashion snob, but I'm just tired of seeing the same old thing over and over. While there is something to be said for the ability to wear shorts, a Tshirt, and sandals 98% of the time, we need some variety here people. I've decided to spearhead a movement to introduce some originality and character into our clothing. You can help by sending me money, which will go towards buying me stuff to replace my tshirts and shorts. This will set an example and inspire those around me, thus bettering the community as a whole.
I don't see you reaching for you wallets dammit.

Everything felt slightly weird for two days after I got back. No, I don't mean "got back" as in the sense that I was suddenly gifted with a big ass, I meant after I returned from my trip. Things just didn't look normal, even my own room. Maybe it was just the lack of sleep and 9 hours worth of jetlag. It wasn't just things looking weird though, the US has a different feel after being in Europe for a month. It's hard to explain. It's not just "oh crap, I'm coming back to reality", it's all the differences between the two also. Ones you can see and ones you can't. Oooooh, spooky.

I can already feel the rush and stress of American life creeping back. Although I feel like maybe it's not affecting me as much as before, it's just around me and I'm aware of it.

John was without his phone and Internet connection for most of the trip and he was getting the shakes. I remember what that's like. I used to get a weird uneasy feeling when I was without my phone and Internet connection on vacations, but now I like getting away from all of that. I think this enjoying life thing is working.

I sound like some kind of new-age tree-hugging hippie with all these revelations.

Companies in the US are screwing us over. Two weeks of vacation a year is not long enough to enjoy life. Think about it. You work all year and save up to do what, buy an expensive car to make up for your small penis? Wouldn't you rather use your hard earned clams to enjoy one or two *serious* vacations? In Europe you get 5 or 6 weeks of vacation each year. I'm moving to Italy or Spain to hook some small towns up to the Internet. Anyone want to join me?

I'll have pictures from the trip up soon. Check back in the next few days.

Sorry I haven't been keeping this page updated- it's a bit harder than I thought to find the time and place to connect to the Internet. So, I'm keeping an ol' fashioned paper journal as a subsitute. I'm also taking a ton of pictures which I'll try to upload if I have the time and bandwidth. If not, I'll of course do it when I get back.

Been having a good time, John is here now and I'm currently hanging out with Maitri and Marcel. Not sure where we're going next, maybe Paris? So far I've been to Brussels, Vervier, Brugge, Luxembourg City, Bonn, Utrecht, Delden, and Hengelo. Next maybe Paris, Barcelona, and Rome.

Hope you all are ok and not missing me too much. =)
-Bryan