1) The Beach
Living in SoCal is worth the immense heat, the smog, the traffic, and the slightly cranky people if only for one thing: the beach. You are not sunbathing until you are laying on golden sand, lulled by the sounds of the ocean waves, and the delicious California sun that would almost threaten to burn you to a crisp if you're not careful. You do not get that feeling of tranquility while laying in the fields of Coventry
2) Free water at restaurants
As a student, I miss being able to save money by not ordering a drink and taking advantage of free water. Especially when in Europe, at 1.50-2 euros/pounds for water, the money adds up and 9 times out of 10, the water is sparking and therefore a bland imitation of soda.
3) Big portions at restaurant
Oh America, land of plenty, how I love you for overfeeding your children and with the price of one meal, actually providing us with the equivalent of two European meals.
4) The bag boy
Tesco's, your friendly British supermarket, do not provide bag boys. The problem with that is since people bag their own groceries, the lines end up moving at a snail's pace. Also, I'm lazy and I like someone else being there to make sure that my eggs don't squish my vegetables.
5) Easy Accessibility
I miss how close everything is, when I could have just walked 5 minutes and there would be a liquor store, or an In&Out nearby. At Warwick, good food is a 30 minute bus ride away and when you have to depend on the rarely punctual British public transportation system to get around, sometimes it's just better to heat something up in the microwave.
6) Close Proximity to Ethnic Food
I would kill for a bowl of phở, Korean BBQ, or even Pad Thai. And even more (which ties in to number 5), I miss having all of the above a mere 20 minute drive (or even less!) from my house. The fact that British food is bland just makes this feeling so much more poignant.
7) Street signs
I hate navigating in Europe, if only because you have to actively look for the streetname, which (unlike the US) are not on poles at the end of the street or overlooking the car lanes. Instead, it's on the end building on every street which are more often than not: small, hidden, scratched, smudged, otherwise unreadible or my personal favorite, absent.
8) Friendliness of the people
I miss going ointo a store and making conversation with a cashier or talking to a random stranger at the market while pondering over vegetables. Here (in Britain), people tend to keep to themselves, the cashiers don't talk to you, and the regular folks would sooner pretend you're invisible than say hi.
9) Cheap living
Somehow, two sweaters for 25 pounds does not beat 2 sweaters for $25. I cannot buy quality clothes for cheap, food for cheap, or gas for cheap (in comparison to the rest of Europe) . Instead, a t-shirt (made in India) is 10 pounds, food is imported and thus expensive, and gas...does not matter since I do not have a car. When the exchange rate goes down, mayble I'll change my mind about this point.
10) Double water faucets
For some odd, backwards reason, the UK is possibly the only country in Europe that still has seperate cold and hot water faucets. The result: either you scald your hands while trying to do something like wash your face, or you're shivering as you're doing it. Choose your poison.
Finally, the thing that I do miss most about California is just California itself. It's home and you never realize until you leave it that it is where you belong. Despite Britain's beautiful green fields, it's history, the culture, the art, California will always be home. In the end, the place where you feel most like yourself is the place where you belong, where your life really is.
Though if someone offered me a chance to live in Paris, I might reconsider this last statement.
image courtesy of Wikipedia
Next time: musings on the Germanic tour (Belgium, Amsterdam, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria)!
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