america the beautiful, wonderful, amazing and everyother great ajective there is!!!!!!!

so i've been back here in the states for almost a month now. at first it was really hard to re-adjust, but as they say time is the ultimate cure. so as time goes on, so do i -- back to the hustle and bustle of "normal" american life. i'm still recovering, but i'm job hunting, car hunting, clothes hunting, and let's not forget the most fun hunt of all, man hunting. it's crazy what a year and a half will do to the single girl. and all of the filipino habits that i picked up--wow, gotta get rid of some of those. like shamelessly staring at people as they walk by. and i don't mean an extra second or two added onto a glance, i'm talking full out staring. i can just imagine the thoughts of people, like who is that freak girl, and why is she staring that guy down. in the 'pines everyone stares, and even if you stare back, they don't break the gaze -- it's bizarre. so i got used to staring too, because i guess it's not rude there. and i gotta say, once you start, it's hard to stop. so i bought some big black sunglasses to be covert about my malfunction. let's see what else . . . oh yeah, my favorite -- my cut off, holey, stained adidas pants. i love them and would wear them anywhere in the 'pines, but here, not so much. i forgot how much appearances count here -- even at the gym, i could see people staring at me and i assume thinking -- wow, she must have spent all of her money on the gym membership so she had no money to buy pants. . . poor girl. or atleast that's what i felt like. but my most favoritest part of all is my sweet, sweet blendability. i blend in here, can speak the language, and know where i'm going. america is simply amazing, and not until i left did i realize this. noone here looks the same, talks the same, believes the same or even eats the same foods. there is so much diversity, yet there is still unity -- it's a truly unique charactersitic that i feel only belongs to america. so because of all of the diversity, noone even gives you a second look if you are of a different race, creed, or religion. we'll excluding parts of the south -- and i'm working on that one family member at a time. so being part of a monochramatic society such as the philippines, it makes you (me) realize how blessed we are to be a part of such diversity, and how much we can learn from each other. a fun little story . . . i was going into a book store in the mall in the philippines, the guard searched my bag and told me to check it at the bag check counter before i could enter the store. this is normal with bigger bags, to prevent theft, but my bag was small, it was actually my purse. i saw other filipina's walking in with bigger bags than mine, and i got really upset and tried arguing with the guard. and he only replied, "mam, please deposit your bag". the more i argued the angrier i became, i felt discriminated against, and actually pulled out the race card. i said, "it's because i'm white isn't it". . . what . . . where i'm from it's usually the opposite. but all of a sudden i'm the minority and this man has the authority to deny me entry into the store. i have never felt anger like that, and truly feel for anyone else who has too. so i ended up checking my bag -- and got my childish on for a while. i went into the store and rearranged all of their books, moved everything around out of order. but it made me feel a little better.