Things We Miss about the USA

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The other day Ryan and I compiled a list of things we are starting to miss about the States. Of course there are the obvious things: Family, Friends, and for me, my dogs. But then there are things that we didn't really expect to miss that we have realized that we really miss a lot. Here they are, in no particular order...

1. Good cheese- The majority of the cheese you find in South America is the same... white, slimy, spongy, really gross-tasting cheese. You can find small blocks of cheddar only in select grocery stores and it costs an arm and a leg... and I am going to consume grotesque amounts of it when I get back.

2. High quality beers- Although Ryan has found one or two that he enjoys down here, they are mostly pilsners. I really miss a good porter, wheat beer, or lager. Unlike expensive cheeses, good quality beers are just non-existent down here.

3. Summer concerts

4. Chocolate- We're not in Belgium, my friends. The chocolate down here is heinous.

5. NOT paying for public toilets- I really don't understand what they charge for anyway. All the public bathrooms we've been in are devoid of toilet paper, soap, and a few don't even have running water. But you'll have to pay $0.25 to use it anyway. You're better off going outside with all the local men, who seem to use the earth as their public urinal.

6. Standard health & safety regulations- I could go on and on about cleanliness issues in restaurants, hostels, bathrooms, on buses and other forms of public transportation (definitely more so in Ecuador than Colombia... Colombia had some exquisite facilities). Dogs and cats INSIDE the kitchens in restaurants (oh, I've seen it on many occasion here in Ecuador). No soap in restaurant bathrooms (if you can't wash your hands after you pee, how do the employees do it???). Etc. But the greatest one that we keep seeing over and over again is not a health issue, it's a safety issue. People are always piling onto motorcycles with half their families aboard... often with a BABY riding either in the front person's lap, in between the two bigger people, or sometimes hanging off to the side on someone's leg. And no one wears a helmet. Wow. You'd get tossed in jail so fast for doing that back home. And in this case, rightly so.

7. NOT having constant gastro-intestinal "problems"... enough said.

Then there are a few menial things that we can definitely live without but we miss nonetheless...
For me: my computer, vegetables, my iPod
For Ryan: frisbee golf, his bike & the public library

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Comments

[Lorna Moseman]

Missing you too
Hope you enjoy Peru and the rest of your days traveling. When you get to Lincoln, we'll go to Yiayia's and get a good lager and some Cheese pizza with something chocolate for dessert and then we'll go to an outdoor summer concert.

[caroline]

Hmmm, maybe we'll have to change our normal 'wine and cheese' night to a 'beer and cheese' night when you get back. It could be 'beer, cheese, chocolate and story telling/pictures from your trip' night...What do you think? Great idea, eh?