One of the strange things about living in another country is the nostalgia you feel about things back home. Sometimes this nostalgia is misplaced, meaning that you tend to remember things as much better than they actually were. Other times the nostalgia is accurate, making some things just as good or even better than you remembered.

Being back in the States, I'm beginning to determine the accuracy of my nostalgia. I decided to make a list of things I've discovered are overrated and underrated in my experience of rediscovering America.

OVERRATED: Taco Bell.
It's not that the food is bad, it's just that it's not that good, either. It's kind of slimy and greasy and leaves you feeling afterwards like you've just done something you probably shouldn't have. And when you mix guilt with dissatisfaction, that's called a bad meal.

UNDERRATED: Actual Mexican Food.
This can only come from an actual Mexican restaurant; one of those run down, low lit joints where the waiters speak minimal English and the bar is always crowded with machismos cussing at the soccer game in Spanish. We don't exactly have that here, but something close to it. I never knew how close a plate of chicken nachos could be to heaven.

UNDERRATED: Dryer Sheets.
There's nothing quite like the smell of Mountain Breeze as you pull a fresh load of warm laundry out of the dryer. Especially when your clothes usually have a faint smell of mold and toxic dust.

OVERRATED: DVD Sales.
Seriously, it's 50% off and it still costs $10? At the store just down the street from my apartment, I could get 15 movies for that price. Or at least I've heard. From a friend. He shops there a lot. I don't do that sort of thing.

OVERRATED: Wal-Mart.
I like cereal. It's a great way to start a day. But there's something seriously wrong with the world when we can choose between 4,692 different kinds of cereal to eat. That's not mentally healthy. A thousand years from now when they're studying our culture, they're going to make fun of us for this.

UNDERRATED: High Speed Internet.
Even thought it's been a week, I'm still trying to break myself of the habit of finding something to kill time while a page loads. I'm reliving the giddiness I felt when my parents finally upgraded from dial-up to high speed when I was in high school. Oh wait. No, you waited until I moved out and went to college. Thanks.

OVERRATED: American Fruit.
I'm not educated in the ways of the American fruit industry, but apparently somewhere in the process of eliminating bugs and diseases from the banana, they accidentally took out the taste, too. Or maybe that's the result of 11 months of second hand smoke.

UNDERRATED: Strawberry Cheese Danish Pop Tarts.
Sweet Methuselah, can they give out a Nobel Peace Prize for developing toaster pastries? I'm convinced that world peace could be accomplished in the next decade if we just gave everyone a box of Cheese Danish Pop Tarts.

OVERRATED: Driving Skills
I used to brag to my students how much safer and well organized driving is in America. You made me a liar. Last time I checked, the shoulder wasn't a passing lane, blinkers a considered a courtesy before cutting someone off, and stop signs aren't suggestions. I think the war on terror should include people who think drinking a 40 oz. latte and driving at 75 mph at the same time is a good idea.

UNDERRATED: Family
Okay, okay. I'm not going to get all mushy on ya. That's not how I roll. I'll just say it's great to be back, if only for a short while.