Things I 'm already missing from the US

[Kellanved]

Well, after spending almost ten days stateside (CT/NY/NJ), I've somewhat settled in back home. I miss the time and would have loved to stay longer. So many things left to see, so many things to learn, so many people to meet. I had to promise to visit Boston, and so I will do.

- College Live (It was only ten days, but still...)
- the people (everyone I met was friendly, helpful and interested - not to mention extremely sorry about Bush. Even my bad English did not stop anyone)
- TeriYaki Sauce (Ok, I brought several bottles with me)
- affordable clothes
- Asian food(good Asian restaurants in my neighborhood have a bad habit of getting either stormed by tourists or going bankrupt)
- tapioca pearls
- Gourmet Heaven (hardly Gourmet, but way cool)
- Supermarket pharmacies
- hot sauces (while most things marked "hot", even in Asian restaurants, weren't, the Habanero sauce kept it's promise)
- coffee refills
- the unnamed bar in New Haven and it's cheeseburgers
- good Tequila
- Cinnamon chewing gum
- Gas prices
- juices other than orange not made from concentrate
- service in shops
- the politeness (haven't heard a "Kraut" the whole time - while I take no offense hearing it, I still hear "Boche" a lot in France and worse things in the UK)


Things I'm glad to have back:
- traffic (no, I did not like driving stateside at all)
- decent prices (five $ for Colgate toothpaste )
- bread (basically the first thing after getting home from the airport: buying some decent bread - sorry)
- beer (I haven't found the brew I liked last time, as I didn't remember the brand. Harpoon was good, as were the Canadian brews, which tasted basically like the French beers. The local micro-brew sucked, as did SamAdams - and the imported German beers; there is no beer called "St Pauli Girl" in Germany)
- not getting asked for change at every street corner
- small supermarkets (what is the deal of having everything in ten flavors and three colors each? what about plain, unsweetened, unflavored yogurt?)
- the right to loiter (thanks McDonald's 5th Avenue)
- the right to drink beer in public
- not getting thrown out of restaurants after finishing
- TV (I haven't found a single interesting Channel; kept watching local news and C-SPAN)
- Cheese
- MTV showing music videos
- not getting carded (it was a pain with a out-of-state ID)
- painless immigration w/o people searching my suitcase (I've kept the Homeland security's "we love you " letter)
- sometime soon: my old weight
- Gas pumps w/o "lever"
- tap water not smelling and tasting of chlorine

[JohnKleeb]

1. was this your first time in the US Kell?

Ive always wanted to visit Germany or one of my ancestral countries, unfortunely I dont speak German, Slovak, or Slovene. Must have been an interesting experience, btw your typing English is pretty good.

[Kellanved]

2. I loved it

It wasn't really my first time, but the first time as an adult.
Thanks about your comment about my typing English, I appreciate it, but my spoken English is really awful - I haven't practiced it for several years and it showed/shows. I'll have to put some serious work into it in order to reach an acceptable TOEFL and Spoken English level.
I've met a surprisingly large number of students that have been to Germany for summer school - I didn't know that the exchange programs are that widespread. A tour to western Europe should hardly be a problem - many people understand English and you should be able to find local guides for all cities. I'd volunteer for Berlin .

[JohnKleeb]

3. I dont speak good Spanish either which is what I am trying to learn

No problem man, glad you came and visited. My school is doing an exchange program.

[sweetheart]

4. good list

Myself a yank overseas, and perhaps less a yank that said, than
one who can't bear the thought of living overseas....

Things i miss:
Some mystical teachers and their stateside satsang (adida, Namkha
drimed rimpoche, jigme rimpoche)
The pink and white uber-sweet animal cookies... and some of the other
uber-sweet american "cookies"... as differentiated from british
bicuts which generally taste like dogfood by comparison.
Sugarless Pepermint bubbleyum
Like you, super super Hot salsa from the supermarket
A culture i totally understand and can navigate easily... however
bizarre it may seem to non-americans.
Open minded looking towards the future, unbound by history
A person or two whom i deeply love, and would give my life to be
with.


Things i don't miss, where i feel more at home in scotland:
Bread sucks in scotland too (british food!!) but my breadmaker makes
outstanding breads, and, could be, just as well, stateside.
Beer and whiskey are far superior in scotland. I don't even bother
drinking american beer.
Dark nights without light pollution
No property crime and unlocked doors
No security checkpoints, police ID checks and all that crap.
Newspapers with "news" in them.
Political parties that i actually agree with (greens/libdems/scottish
socialists)
Cheese
Local scottish beef and lamb (free range highland)
People not brainwashed to shit by cognitively dissonant media.

[PragMantisT]

5. Sounds like you enjoyed yourself.

Good for you for visiting the East Coast. Most folks think Las Vegas is America. And often it is the only thing of America they see.

I bet it is good to be home again.

Sounds like my visit to Europe. Folks were cool. They did not mistake me for George Bush or treat me like I was personally a warmonger. Even my pitiful German and Spanish was not ridiculed. There were familiar things and things I missed.

Don't forget to tell your friends. Especially now when the Euro goes so far here.

Viel Gluck!