honey, i'm home!

so i made it! fourteen months later and i am back at home in burlington, nc. yesterday, my family and i went out to eat for lunch AND dinner and it was great (even though my stomach wasn't so pleased about the ol' Blue Ribbon Diner...).

today i ventured out of the house a little bit more...here are some of the highlights:

-i can still drive. like a champ! even though it was in my mom's van and not my beloved neon, it still wasn't so hard.

-burlington has TWO drive-thru starbucks. and i went to one today. and drove-thru. and drank a pumpkin spice latte, which is the world's greatest beverage.

-the fall foliage is far more beautiful than i remembered. wow. gorgeous. wish you were here!

-i went to the grocery store. did you know there is an entire aisle for bottled water?

-while mom and i were at the grocery store, we decided to get some orange juice. mom chose minute maid. this woman came up to us to ask us about our decision to choose minute maid. the conversation went something like this:

woman: do you drink minute maid orange juice?
mom: yes.
woman: do you know where they get the oranges from?
mom: um...(starts looking at the back of the carton)
woman: because my friend told me that they import oranges from somewhere in south america and you know they don't have the same health regulations as we do...
[jessica begins to look at the juice selection]
woman: i think maybe he said from argentina
[jessica starts backing away because she is not sure what she is going to say at this point]
mom: well my daughter just got back from argentina yesterday. she lived there for a year and a half.
jessica: the oranges tasted pretty good to me.
[woman sticks her foot in her mouth]
[woman realizes she is talking to maybe the only person in burlington, nc that knows anything about argentina and starts trying to make up for it]
woman: so what were you doing in argentina? studying?
jessica: no, i was there working for campus crusade for christ.
woman: well bless your heart. your mom must be so proud. what are you going to do next?
jessica: well, i'm actually going back down in january.

and i'm going to drink minute maid orange juice.

cheers,
jess

p.s. seriously, do i have a magnet on my head that says "talk to me when i am buying orange juice??" because in argentina, a woman got mad at me for buying orange juice from a carton. she said to me: "don't drink dat. drink da real fruit."