Things I Will Miss About America

I've done it before. I've lived in Paris and it was great. Beautiful. Fun. The best experience of my life. And because it was great, beautiful, fun and the best experience of my life, I specifically picked it as my base for my graduate studies.

However, life in Paris is not perfect, contrary to how I rave about it.

With my days left in America entering the single digits, I've been taking note of the things in my daily life that I'll likely miss a whole lot, other than simply friends and family.

(I'm perfectly aware that these could all be classified as "first world problems," Mom.)

THINGS I WILL MISS ABOUT AMERICA (In no particular order)

1. Owning or having access to a printer. Last spring I had to print my internship report and three copies cost me a total of twenty euros at a local print shop. That seems excessive.

2. Proper chips and salsa. I'll have to manage with the meager offerings at Franprix.

3. Owning a washer and dryer that not only produce fully-dry and wonderful-smelling clothing, but are free to use, too. I'm already cringing thinking about all the hand-washing I'll end up doing because I won't want to deal with it.

4. Driving. Yes, the métro is easy to use and environmentally efficient, but I'll miss the selfish freedom that cars provide.

5. Peanut butter. Yes, they have tiny Skippy jars at Franprix, but they're expensive and elicit a lot of curious staring from non-Americans.

6. Air-conditioning. Again, it's better for the environment to go without, but climate-controlled buildings are a wonderful thing, my friends. And France just doesn't really do them.

7. Personal space. I'll have to once again readjust to having significantly less personal space in a city whose population is four times that of Minneapolis-St. Paul. No more freely swinging my arms while walking or being able to fit in cramped cafés. Or showers. I think I'm unusually tall in France, which is weird.

8. Being able to buy shoes if I want or need to. Sigh. I wear a women's European 43, which I think is just an urban legend in Paris. Let me know if you ever see a pair.

9. Ice-cold drinking water. Yeah, carafes d'eau (water carafes) don't have ice in them.

10. Dollars. The exchange rate is painfully tipped in Europeans' favor. Ouch. But thankfully it's not the British pound. Double ouch.