I really miss bieng able to get Oreo Cookies at 3:00 in the morning should the desire strike me. Here in Australia most of the shops near me close about 5:00. We 'Yanks are spoiled with the all-night grocery stores.
Finding Oreo Cookies in the first place.
Cheeseburgers. Oh sure, they have 'em, but they’re not quite the same animal here (they have pouches). Don’t even get me started on the wrong-headedness of lambburgers.
Waking up in the morning and instinctivly knowing which side of the road to drive on.
Non-shitty roads. And on a related note, readily available AA batteries for my bicycle headlight. And accessible bike shops, for repair materials when–due to the lack of a power source for said headlight–a pothole-induced endo leads to a taco’d front wheel and an annoying dose of road rash, courtesy of a decidedly shitty road.
Things I don’t miss include psychotic bluehairs in huge land barges, and their knuckle-dragging progeny in miscellaneous jacked-up pickup trucks, all of whom harbor a near-religious convicition that any bicycle which ventures off the sidewalk is fair game.
Things I will miss, when back in the States, include being a short walk away from some of the best snorkeling, diving, and kayaking I’ve ever seen.
Lemme see. My family, Tim Horton’s, maple cream cookies, my hair styling lotion, certain cereals, my esthetician, non-rude customer service people, non-racist attitudes, colourful money, French speaking.
I think I’m finally settling in now. I’m finding replacements for everything that I can, and Mom has kindly offered to be my supplier for everything else.
S p a c e . Supermarket aisles wide enough for 2 (thin) people to pass each other. Sidewalks on which only 20% of the area is occupied. Bars with room for both elbows. Bookstores with room to stand back and browse. Pharmacies where you’re not in danger of sending piles of fluffy toys (don’t ask) crashing to the ground with your backpack.
I think you can relax. It’s not that difficult to find good, familiar food, although you might have to pay a little more for it (and if you live in a major city, it’s really easy to find everything you need). Some things, though, just won’t be quite the way you remember them, and that will probably be what you come to miss most.
Like Mexican food. I would kill for good, cheap Mexican food.
I moved from the UK to the US when I was 25 and don’t think I actually missed anything except people. I did miss Soccer for a while but then I got into Basketball so that went away after about a year. When I moved back to the UK I missed damn nearly everything; good customer service, good weather, sushi, mexican food, good coffee, lots and lots of space - the list is endless
Sausage Rolls, salad sandwiches, Throaties, Eucalyptus lollies, Minties, Fantales, Violet Crumble, Cherry Ripe, Pollywaffle, Twisties, Lamingtons, Splice, Paddlepops, soft drinks made with REAL sugar, NOT corn syrup - yes, they do taste better!, the beaches, the people, my mummy, passionfruit.
Things I don’t miss: being charged for tomato sauce packets and matches and the ubiquitous poker machines.
Popcorn with salt at the movies. All you can get is the nasty kind with sugar - and if you ask for the salted kind they look at you like you’re a sicko.
Mexican food. My wife and I make our own Burritos from scratch. We’re talking Saturday afternoon job just to have them for supper that night. Tortillas from scratch, refried beans, everything the hard way.
We can get corn tortilla chips from Wal Marts (yes, they are here, too.) And syrup for hotcakes on Sunday, although it isn’t a brand I would even consider if I were buying it in the US. Man, oh man, I could really go for a 1/2 gallon jar of Blackburn’s or Pride of Dixie syrup.
Good lord, how could I forget! Canned pumpkin. I love pumpkin pie, but it is one hell of a lot of work to grow pumpkins and then cook the buggers down.
Pumpkins should actually be classed as weeds. My wife made the mistake of planting some one year. We had to cut the vines back to keep the blasted things from taking over the whole backyard.
As a former Prague expat (does that make me a repat?) I missed:
All you can eat buffets. Especially chinese food.
Free soda refills.
Socks. They had to import socks from Germany, and they were thin, poor material.
Libraries/second hand bookstores.
Cats. They claim to love cats, but you won’t see a sackful of them the whole time you’re there. I don’t think I saw cat one in two years time. Most queer, I tells ya.
Fitting in. If you get plowed, or do something foolish, it’s never “look what that guy is doing!” it’s “look what the American is doing!” followed by rolling eyes. It gets to be a bit of a drag.
The Sun. Prague is about on the same latitude as Vancouver, and winters are dark and cold for a Texas boy. If you go inside somewhere early in the morning and stay till afternoon, you’ll miss the Sun altogether.
Shiner Bock. Czechs make the best beer on the planet, but I still missed Shiner Bock.
It has some cool stuff from the “olden days” that you can have sent to you.
I know when I was living in Germany, I craved Skippy Super Crunch. Yeah, they had peanut butter, but it just wasn’t the same.
And one Thanksgiving an American girl and myself made pumpkin pies from scratch - and I mean from a real pumpkin and Joy of Cooking recipe…let me tell ya, I ain’t never gonna try that again, even though it was the best pumpkin pie I ever ate - it took FOREVER to make it and we, and our guest, ate all three pies in about 5 minutes.
Mort, if you get to Frankfurt the Eschenheimer Turm Kino has English language films (relatively first run) and salted popcorn. (they also have the sweet kind) The theatre itself is a bit archaic but you can’t have everything.
And there is a decent Mexican restaurant in Bornheim, IIRC, but I probably couldn’t tell you how to find it.
Oh, heavens, yes! And fried pork skins.
One day me and Mrs. Furd are gonna take the time and make some jerky - provided we survive the “Indigo Children” crisis.
