Top Ten Things I Miss Right Now
Besides from the obvious i.e. family and friends, there are a few things I miss a lot right now. This isn’t a list of complaints merely a compilation of things I’d rather not live without for so long. Here goes:
1. Food! You and I both knew this day was coming; well it’s finally here. Thai food has been taking a toll on me. While everyone else is losing weight, I’m gaining what Lonely Planet refers to as a rice belly. I long for meals cooked by Momma Schu or any of my favorite restaurants. I could use a burrito, baked bread or some seafood marina pasta right about now. In general I miss food variety. The food here is great. Delicious, filling and cheap, but it’s a lot of the same ingredients so after awhile you feel like you’re eating the same thing every night. Hopefully now that I’ve found the new vegetarian places that will change a little bit.
2. Family get togethers and vacations. There’s nothing like having the entire Schu family in one place. Holidays, birthdays and vacations are the best at my house. I hear my friends complain about going home or spending extended amounts of time with their fam, while I say bring it on. I wish there was a way for all of us to get snowed in together when I get home, but since I’ll be arriving in April I doubt that will happen.
3. My bed, my wonderful, wonderful bed. I refer to it as the cloud. My bed is made up of many parts. One huge mattress, a fluffy feather topper, a down comforter, several fleece blankets, a body pillow and a half dozen smaller feather pillows all mingle to create a little piece of heaven. I miss that. Here the mattresses are like slabs of cement and until a week ago I only had one pillow. I can’t wait to reassemble my bed, flop down and snooze for a good twelve hours.
4. Charlie. My baby, the love of my life, my little kitty cat. I miss having a little being relying on me for food, water and love. I hate coming home to an empty apartment, no meows or belly rubs, just the hum of an air conditioner. I can’t wait to get back to my girl and squeeze her until she scratches me and runs away.
5. Long phone conversations. I’m not really a phone talker, but when I do call someone it’s usually a girl friend and we’ll chat for at least an hour. I miss not having the option to do that. I have tried calling over skype a few times, but the connection is so bad that no one can hear me. The time zones also make it a bit difficult to find a time that’s mutually convenient. I feel like I’m out of touch with a lot of the little things in my friends lives, so when I get home I’ll have to make it up by having real time face-to-face conversations that last for days.
6. Really hot showers. It’s not a must, but it would be nice. In Jamaica it’s so hot that a cold shower feels great, but here I’m always in air conditioning so cold showers aren’t as appreciated. Even if a place says it has hot water it usually means warm or not exactly freezing cold water. I’m looking forward to taking a long hot shower at the Schu farm where the hot water never runs out.
7. Street art. Philly is full of street art, so much so that sometimes it becomes an eyesore. That being said, I love street art. It adds color to the city and it lets you know what real people are feeling. Thailand does not suffer from this at all. I rarely see graffiti, posters, signs or anything of the sort. There’s a bit more graffiti in Bangkok, but nothing like the wall at 5th and Cecil B. Moore.
8. Couches. I long to sit on a couch. I haven’t sat on one since my teacher training back in October. I want to lounge on a couch, watch TV and eat snacks aka act like a real couch potato. Instead I’m confined to my really hard and uncomfortable desk chair or my bed, which is also pretty hard.
9. Wearing funky clothes and sneakers. I don’t care too much what I look like in Thailand so I rarely spend anytime getting ready. I have a “uniform” of long skirts and loose t-shirts. I miss thinking about my outfits and feeling like I picked a good one. I will say though that when I’m in the States sometimes I feel too much pressure when it comes to appearances and that turns me off too, so I would like to strike some type of balance between the two. I miss sneakers too, it’s just too hot here to be comfortable in them.
10. Having more than one job. I love having multiple jobs. Since I came to Philadelphia I’ve always had at least three jobs at any one time and once I was up to five. I like the variety of work, multiple paychecks and over all craziness of having to manage so many work schedules. Working at Anubanchonburi can get boring sometimes because it’s straight up Monday through Friday, 40 hours per week. I like a switch up every once in awhile.
These are the things I miss right now. I’m interested to see how much I start to value these things when I get back to the United States.
