I never realized how much I miss from home when I away from it and in another country. Seriously, who thinks about missing ice cubes in their drinks or more importantly flavored water when they aren’t home? That was me for two weeks when I was away from home. I started realizing some of the things I missed when I wasn’t home. Would I give up traveling because of the little things I miss? No…. I would appreciate those things more when I get back home. I would appreciate getting to know another country unlike my own. I am sure other people may feel the same way about the little things missed when they leave their own country to visit another one.
- Ice in drinks — Correct me if I am wrong but I think putting ice in your drinks is more of an American thing. The only reason I say this is I haven’t noticed other countries intentionally putting ice in their drinks if they want them colder than ‘refrigerator cold’. Living in the United States; we are used to having ice put in our drinks at restaurants without having to ask for it. The only time it isn’t done is if we ask them not to put ice in the glass. Other countries I have visited do not put ice in their drinks therefore they aren’t as cold as we are used to in the states. I can’t remember if it is something we can request when we are at a restaurant since I always went with it and didn’t ask for ice when I was visiting another country. It wasn’t a big deal since the drink was cold enough; not what I was used to, but still cold enough to drink. It is just something I miss because I am used to it.
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- Non-Smoking — This is one I take seriously as a non-smoker. I am used to walking out my door and making it to the end of the street or sitting in a restaurant and not having the person next to me lighting up a cigarette or smoking. I think smoking is more of the exception than the norm in the states…. Make that I think not smoking in restaurants is definitely something that we do not do. In traveling, I had to get used to walking every few feet and seeing someone either lighting up a cigarette or already smoking to some degree. This is something I don’t want to get used to as a non-smoker. I want to be able to breathe clean air without feeling the air around me is being polluted because someone is smoking mere inches from where I am walking.
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- Diet Soda + Flavored Water — I don’t normally drink diet soda but I do drink a lot of flavored water since I am not partial to regular water. Personally, I get used to walking into a grocery store and seeing all these choices for diet sodas or flavored water. You would see diet coke, diet 7-up, diet sprite, diet root beer lining the shelves for some of your diet soda choices among many other ones to choose from while there. As for flavored water; you would see strawberry watermelon, raspberry lemonade, peach nectarine, orange mango lining the shelves for some of your flavored water choices. The only choice seen when traveling away from home was Fanta orange zero and that wasn’t in every store. Besides that, I did see coke light and coke zero but there weren’t any other diet sodas anywhere to be found. Unless I wasn’t looking hard enough for them. If you move away from the diet sodas then the other option would be flavored waters; fruit punch was the only one I could find. Again maybe I wasn’t looking hard enough for it.
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What are some of the things you miss from home when you are away from it for weeks or months at a time? Is it the missing ice in your drinks? Is it walking down the street and knowing you aren’t going to walk into someone within feet of you with a cigarette in their hand? Is it walking into a store and being able to find your favorite drink? Is it something completely different because of where you live? Is it a favorite food that another place doesn’t carry? Is it the way people in your country drive versus how others drive somewhere else? What is it about where you live that makes you essentially take certain things for granted and miss them when you are away from home for a while?
