This is definitely consumer heaven. I love having a library with books I can read easily and an online card catalog. It took a few days to get used to speaking to strangers in English instead of French. And of course, it's been great seeing family and friends again for the first time in a while. The flip side f course, there are things that we already miss.
Life here is hectic.
Everything moves faster, everyone's life is scheduled. I miss our friends in France, of course, but one of the things I especially miss is that in France we all had time to be friends. People might stop over on Sunday afternoon and stay until late in the evening. Here, it's pretty rare that you spend more than two or three hours with someone, which now seems awfully short. Restaurants pale in comparison to those in France.