Now that I have been back in the US for about 3 weeks, the reverse culture shock has diminished and I am almost back to my routine ways. Having lived in Italy for 1 year while trying to adapt to the Italian culture as much as possible, I am finding the American way of life not as grandiose as once thought. I was actually more culture shocked returning to the US than first going to Italy. One of the biggest disappointments was not being able to drink wine with lunch. A couple of days after I returned to the US, I had to satisfy my craving for a 5 Guys cheeseburger. So some friends and I went to the burger joint and 2 things really captured my attention. The first being the size of the food served. The burger, fries and drink were easily the biggest food items I have seen in a year. The small drink was bigger than any drink I saw in Italy. I used to be able to finish off a double cheesburger, fries and coke easily, now I come no where close. Secondly, and perhaps the saddest was when I went to the beverage station and there was no wine to choose from. I guess subconsciously, I was thinking about filling up with a house Chianti, but the only drinks at this site were 
sweet carbonated beverages. Having a glass of wine for lunch has been part of my life for the past year, and suddenly this aspect has been taken from me.
Living abroad has really opened my mind in many ways. While America is and always will be a great country, there are many other countries and ways of life that are equally as great.
Another disappointment for me has been the quality of food and architecture. So far I have eaten subs, pizza, cheeseburgers, cheese steaks and other American specialties but I am finding the quality of ingredients to be sub par. The submarine sandwiches are loaded with meats and cheese to a rather disturbing amount. Portions are huge and quality is low. This kind of sounds like Italian wine quality back in the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s, high quantity, low quality. Even the supermarkets don’t seem to be as good anymore, and I was huge fan of them before I left.
When in a store or just driving around, I am finding things not to be as beautiful and craftfully designed. It’s as if they just went through the motions. Nothing is a personal as it was in Italy. Everything out here is franchised and is missing identity to some degree , or in wine terminology-terrior.
That’s enough complaining for now, back to the job hunt…
