Things Missed

Since moving here I have spent a lot of time with my laptop-- me and my laptop in bed, on the couch, on the other couch, in the kitchen, we have become great friends.  I guess its keeps me occupied and provides some mild entertainment.  Sadly, I mostly read about celebrity entertainment, I have started giving Craig hourly updates on the Charlie Sheen saga.  But I have really gotten into reading blogs, there are a lot of great baking and cooking blogs where I get ideas for things to make, or things to avoid making as the case may be.  I have have found some that are written by American women living in the UK (that's me!) which are pretty interesting.  I recently found one, www.passportdelicious.com, its written by a woman from Chicago who moved to the UK and has since moved back to Chicago.  In a recent post she came up with a list of things she missed about living in the US and I was astounded and comforted at how many I agreed with.  I wanted to go over a few them to give a better perspective of what life is like here.

Things the Passport Delicious lady and I Miss About America (her list is in gray and my comments are in yellow)

Talking to strangers in elevators, on trains, and in buses and airports. You never know anyone’s story in the US. So many interesting ones to be had.  I don't chit chat with random people as much as I did back home, I don't know if that's not done as much here or if just don't feel as comfortable so I don't even attempt to do it.  When I have tried people just don't seem as friendly about it engaging in conversation, it could be because as soon as I open my mouth they know that "I'm not from 'round these parts" and thus, can't relate to me?  Or don't know what to think of me?

Wearing gym clothes all day on a Sunday. No need to break out the skinny jeans and lh or brunch or the grocery store. Sweatpants and baseball caps totally okay all day. I seem to wear sweats and leggings a lot  (and its not just because of the weight I've gained since moving here!)  They are just comfortable and unless I am going out to eat or meeting up with other people I see no need to get all snazzied up. arge sunglasses as you head out for lunc

Huge washers and dryers that work so quickly! 1.5 hours and you’re done with washing AND drying.  Laundry and me have been waging a war ever since we moved here.  And laundry seems to be winning. The washers and dryers are minuscule, and one wash cycle takes about an hour and 20 minutes, and a dryer cycle is about 90-100 minutes depending on what you have in there.  Don't even get me started on the dry cleaning places here... Where is a Zip's when you need one!?

Tap water. Everywhere. Easily refilled.  When I left college I thought my Britta days were LONG gone, not so.

Salads for lunch. Salads for dinner. Lots and lots of salads.  I really miss salads, restaurants here rarely have big entree sized salads on the menu, and if they do they have like 4 ingredients in them.  So disappointing.  How am I supposed to get all my veggies in if they only offer mushy peas for greenery?  (Mushy peas are an actual dish here, I wasn't just calling peas mushy)

Half-and-half. They don't have half and half, which is what I prefer in my coffee.  They have single cream and double cream.  Double cream is like heavy whipping cream, single cream is similar to half and half but with a slightly higher fat content, and they don't use it at coffee shops.  Coffee shops have semi-skimmed milk (like 2%) for customers to put in their coffee, it just doesn't do it for me. 

Gyms that open at 5:30 am. I can't even tell you how much I miss my gym in Virginia, XSport Fitness.  Not only was it a 3 minute drive from my house, it was HUGE, had TVs on every piece of cardio equipment, was open 24 hour/365 days a year, offered tons of classes, and was not very expensive.  I checked out a gym here that was not nearly as nice or as big as XSport (it closed at 5pm on Sundays!) and they wanted to charge me way more money.  I told the guy about my gym back home and he said, "Oh I love America! I wish I lived there!"  Needless to say, I didn't get a membership, I have just been using the gym on the base which is free and suits my needs fairly well.

Cheap manicures and pedicures. Everywhere. Ugh, yes.  Manicure and pedicure, two of my best friends.  I haven't had a one since I've been here.  Nail places are not common here and the ones that exist are really expensive, like 30 pounds for a manicure (around $45!!). No thank you!

The Today Show on NBC. I would watch BBC Breakfast and GMTV while I was in London, but nothing really compares to Matt Lauer and the gang on NBC. I especially like the first 22 minutes of commercial-free news. Fantastic for the treadmill.  I can't believe someone else shares my EXACT same feelings on the subject!  I need to find this girl, we may be soul mates!  Oh how I miss Matt and Meredith, even Al Roker's corny jokes.  I watch clips of the show online but it's just not the same, they only show the actual news segments and I miss out on all the witty banter.  And its what I used to watch when I ran on the treadmill every morning at XSport from 7am-8am.  I didn't even mind the running part because I was so enthralled by the show.

Salsa I am going to take salsa, and enlarge it to include all Mexican and Tex Mex food in general.  What I wouldn't give for a beef burrito, oozing with cheese and sour cream, followed by a giant margarita rimmed with crunchy salt.  I once ordered nachos at a pub here.  I got a plate of Doritos with about two tablespoons of shredded cheese half melted on top.  I thought the waiter was trying to play some kind of sick joke on me, but no, those are British nachos .                                                                                         \

The Passport Delicious lady had a lot more things listed but I think I am going to stop here.  I don't want to come off as a whiny downer.  There are things I like about living here.  In fact, that will be my next blog post!