I am finally back in North America, and I am, indeed happy to be back. Looking out of the window during my flight across the Atlantic, I finally saw land and though of how much I loved the openness of this wonderful continent (sure, I was flying right over Quebec, but that's mostly irrelevant). I had a great seven weeks, on the whole, visiting 15 countries, using planes, trains, buses, cars, a ferry, and a ski lift, not to mention the miles and miles (kilometers and kilometers) that I walked, mostly on horribly uncomfortable cobblestone roads.

During my voyage, I made several lengthy writings in my notebook, and will most likely manage to post them here. I would have posted along the way, but the keyboards vary from country to country, and sometimes the "y" key is the place of the "z" key. Considering how often I use Y in mY language, trYing to tYpe a reallY long post was virtuallY impossible. When possible, I will include the original dates of the writing, and may or may not put them in order, but that will take some time.

Since I've been back, I've seen American history with the Boston Red Sox finally breaking the curse of the Bambino and winning a World Series, much to my delight, in a four game sweep of my hated St. Louis Cardinals. The high of the moment is currently lessened by my tremendous writer's block as I attempt to fire off a letter the editor begging the mostly good people of Iowa to vote against Bush on November 2, but I am, unfortunately, either too long winded or too eloquent for an Iowa newspaper; I struggle to write sentences that truly convey what I want to say: Bush bad, Iowa. I hope to cure this later today. Here's hoping, anyway. That's it for now, but look forward to new posts along the next few weeks.