What would you miss from home?

I'm going to the US for three weeks in July. Like good parents, both my Mother and Father have been asking "what should we have in the house for you?" It made me think of things I have gotten used to not having here in Ethiopia, but will really love when I get back. It makes for an odd list:

• Veggie burgers
• Vanilla soy milk
• Thick black beer
• Gatorade
• Heavy whole wheat bread, the kind you can use as a weapon
• "Natural" peanut butter that separates when you leave it alone
• Bagels
• Thai food
• Tofu
• Starbucks (don't you start with me!)

And on the non-food front:
• Miles and miles of diesel-fume-free country roads for bicycling
• Wifi everywhere
• SMS
• Freeways
• The Gap outlet in Traverse City
• Anonymity
• Nordstrom's shoe department (Ethiopian men apparently don't have big feet)
• The Apple Computer Store
• Circuit City

I'd be interested in hearing what other expats miss from home. Paul, my Aussie colleague, was talking about missing Vegemite...

Comments

[Stew]

I missed Mexican food when I lived in Spain! In fact, I missed anything and everything spicy.

Why don't I run across the street from work and have a starbucks for you? I'll have them put two ice cubes in it, and then I'll drink it black!

I also missed Cheddar cheese, but by the second time I lived in Spain I had discovered a source for it.

[Marc]

Ooh, thanks. Have a double tall soy latte for me. Mmmm. Oddly, you can get almost every kind of cheese here. It's expensive but available (no queso machego though...). You can even get Mexican food, albeit with make-do ingredients.

[Stew]

Double Tall Soy Latte on my DESK! I had it made extra hot, though. I like it to last.

A major thing I missed in BCN was anything made at home in an oven. I had no oven, just a stovetop! So I was kind of limited in what I could make. No homemade pizza! No chocolate chip cookies! There was a bagel shop, though, which I used to go to with this Canadian couple I met. Ahhhh. The memories!