16 Things I Miss Most About Home

I want some homemade chocolate chip cookies
in a bad way.

1. Eating whatever I want to eat whenever I want to eat it. I've definitely adjusted to the food here, and I don't mind eating meat, cheese, and potatoes more than I do in the States, but I do miss good Chinese food, $2.50 cartons of ice cream, my mom's cooking, dollar tacos... Additionally, it'll be nice to not have to wait until 3:30 to eat lunch and 9:30 to eat dinner. Again, something that I've gotten used to and that doesn't bother me anymore, but also something I don't think I'll miss when I'm back home.

2. Paying with dollars. It hurts, man, it really hurts, to take 300 euros out of the ATM and watch 345 dollars get sucked out of my bank account...that's what a conversion rate is, right there. It's money--a lot of it--going nowhere.

3. Having things to do and feeling like I'm actually being productive/helping people/earning the oxygen I'm sucking up. I feel as though I have exhausted the things to do in this town. I don't want to spend money to do anything, but everything to do here costs money since we're in a city, and if I want to get out of the city to go for a hike or something I still need to pay money to take a bus since I don't have a car. When I first got here I felt like I really tried to be all self-improving by journaling, writing for fun, reading, running, exercising, etc. but the motivation for life in general has started to slip a little bit.

Tubing left me bruised and soaking wet every single time
but somehow I still have fond memories of it...

I wound up video chatting with my mentee last Friday and my face hurt from smiling by the end of our short conversation, half of which he spent just taking me around the life center and shoving the phone in other mentors' faces. It was so incredibly refreshing to talk to kids, to have them ask me ridiculous questions like "Where have you been?" "Spain!" "So are you gonna come to Legoland next week?" "Nah I'm sorry man, Spain's kinda far away". I realized that that part of me, that desire to be needed by other people, has gone a little bit dormant over the last three months. I was so afraid that when I called, my mentee would be upset with me for not calling before, for not trying harder to communicate, but he was all smiles, his normal, distracted, hyperactive self. I miss that kind of love that kids give you. They might hate you at first, but as soon as you tell them that they've got all of you--all your time and attention and effort--that they can trust you and that you'll be there for them, you're in their pocket.

It broke my heart a little bit when I asked my mentee how his one-on-one time went (he was supposed to go see a movie with his twin brother and his brother's mentee) and he said that the plans "fell through". When I found out the other mentor was taking my mentee as well, I had offered to pay for my mentee if what they wound up doing cost money. I knew that the other mentor was a little flakey, but still. It's rough to feel like I could do a better job, and yet at the same time...I'm actually doing a worse-than-flakey job by not being there at all. Anyway. I miss having my patience tried, trying to figure these kids out and love them at their most unlovable, and be there for them rain or shine. When I asked my mentee what he wanted to do when I got back to Philly he said "play ball and bake a cake". I know that this time won't last forever, that he's still a boy now who has fun baking cakes with a 21 year old girl, but in a few years it'll be different. Who knows what will happen, if he'll still be at Dream, if I'll still be in Philly. I want to take advantage of the time I have now, and I can't really do that here.

"Country roads, take me home to the place
I belong" (name that song)

4. Seeing the two little girls my mom and I babysit. Those kids are just so sweet and fun to be around and I miss having them over at our house, taking them to the park, playing with Play Dough and having the 3-year-old tell me "You get out!" when I interrupt her watching my brother play video games in the TV room/my brother's bedroom when he's home.

5. Camp. The camp dreams have started back again (last summer I was plagued with them while I was a camp counselor, and now that camp season is approaching they're returning). It'll be fun to see a lot of the same kids from last year, even the less-well-behaved ones, and see how they've changed in a year. I'm also excited for spending my days outside, exploring the creek, playing Capture the Counselor during recess, and being harassed by campers to sacrifice my glorious 15 minute lunch break to eat with them...

6. Being able to eavesdrop on people's conversations. Eavesdropping is an advanced language proficiency skill I don't quite have yet, and I miss being able to do it all the time subconsciously in English. People just have such interesting conversations!

I miss my plants. According to TJ, they are still alive...we shall see...

7. DIVERSITY. Spain is a very white, very WASP-y, very heterosexual country. I miss diversity in all its facets, especially in a big city like Philadelphia on a large metropolitan campus like Temple. People are just more interesting to look at at home. They dress more creatively, they don't all look the same, and they're refreshingly different from me and from each other.

8. My wardrobe. Okay, this is a vain thing to say, I know, but I've been wearing the same things that fit in one suitcase for the last 3.5 months and I would like to wear other things, especially now that it is no longer winter and I would like to wear my bright, happy colored clothing...none of which I brought with me.

9. Driving. Sure, the bus system here is great, and I like walking too, but I miss driving. Especially driving good ole Gumpy. This might be the longest time I've gone without driving since I got my license...

Grocery shopping AND friends <3

10. Walmart. Go ahead and shoot me for saying this, but Walmart is a great place and I will be going there a lot this summer and you can hate me for that, but when you spend a long time in a place with literally NO SUPERSTORES, you will want a Walmart too.

11. My apartment/my home. It's weird having two (or more) places that feel equally like home, but when you set roots down in two separate locations and when half your life is in one of those locations and the other half is in the other, it's hard not to feel a little torn between the two. Or not torn necessarily, but just like you have to show each place the love and time it deserves. So I'm looking forward to spending the summer both in Philly and at home (mostly at home, since I'll be working there). I miss my room in my apartment and my room back home.

12. Grocery shopping. Okay, I still go grocery shopping here because I'm a habitual snacker and need snacks to keep me alive and happy, but I miss you know, actual grocery shopping. Granted, my diet consisted largely of canned beans, milk, pasta, and yogurt but it's still something.

13. Being in a small town/in the country. Oviedo is a lot smaller, a lot quieter, a lot safer, and a lot cleaner than Philly, so it's pretty much all the best parts of being in a city, but it's still city life, which means that by the end of the semester I'm ready to go back to a small town, to the country, to something other than lots of people, building, cars, and lights telling you when you can walk and when you can't.

Okay, maybe Murph likes me a little bit.

14. Maggie and Murph. I might miss them just a little teensy bit, even though they're both annoying and probably secretly hate me. They're still infinitely better than my host family's dog Richi, who pees on the kitchen floor every day, barks and whines if my host mom sits down to eat, and does nothing but sleep in the corner of the kitchen all day long.

15. Baking. I'm going to bake so many things when I get home. Cookies, brownies, muffins, pies, cakes, cupcakes, banana/zucchini/whatever bread... It's gonna be great.

16. My friends! It'll be so good to see everyone after 5 months. I'm sure it'll feel like no time has passed at all, and since we've kept in touch there won't be much to "catch up" on but it'll feel so good to talk face to face and spend time doing things (or nothing) together again.

I only have a month and a half left here so before long I'm sure I'll be making a "Things I Miss About Spain" post, but for now...these are a few of the things I miss most about home...(and my family too, of course, but I saw them a month ago so it's not such a giant missing).


-SE Wagner