U-S-A!! U-S-A!! U-S-A!!

Well, after many months of travelling around the world, we have finally arrived back in one of our home countries, the US of A. It was a bit treacherous landing at JFK in New York last night as there was a major lightning storm causing trouble. After many delays we finally got into the city at 11 p.m. after a long day of travelling.

We spent almost exactly 6 months in the southern hemisphere, but it's good to time our arrival in the northern hemisphere with summertime! Although it's a bit too hot right now in New York.

So, after four and a half months in South America, it's a bit difficult to adjust back to first world living. For example, now I can:

- take a taxi cab with a meter, rather than agreeing a price beforehand
- receive change in a store and not have to inspect every bill looking for fakes
- not worry so much about catching rare and exotic diseases
- flush my used toilet paper down the toilet rather than throw it in a trash can next to the toilet
- walk down the street after 10 p.m.
- not have to speak Spanish at least once a day (although during our layover in Miami airport, I thought I was still in South America)
- drink the tap water! This is very helpful and also saves us money when we eat out

And speaking of the USA and South America, the USA men's soccer team kicks off their Copa America tournament in Venezuela today against Argentina. The Copa America is like the European Championships. It features all of the South American countries except the Guyanas and first Mexico muscled their way in and the US joined them in the 1990s. My money is on Argentina to win it this year. By the way, Mexico beat Brazil 2-0 last night. More information here (although the site is in Spanish): http://www.copaamerica.com/

And also speaking of the USA, it might be time for the oldest country in the Americas (apparently Haiti is the second oldest) to get a name change. In Latin America they didn't like it when we called ourselves "americanos", insisting that South Americans were also "americanos". So, instead to refer to Americans as "norteamericanos", although I'm not sure how the Canadians (or Mexicans) feel about that. The other option is to say "estadounidense", but that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. But then again, Mexico is officially known as "Los Estados Unidos de Mexico" so technically they could also be "estadounidense". Any suggestions for a new name for the USA?