I'm leaving in a little over a month and I just can't stop thinking about it. On the one hand I'm getting a little annoyed with my cramped and uncomfortable living situation, I'm excited to go home and have all of comforts that come with it. But I can't help but feel attached to this place too. It's push-pull.
Things I have missed:
A good, big mug of coffee
Spices
Toilets and free water everywhere
Good coffee...no, I know I wrote this twice, it was on purpose.
Doing laundry in a machine...with a dryer
Having my kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom be separate rooms
Easily being able to buy hippy-health food
Piggybacking on the last one: being healthy, all the peer pressure from the health nut Seattleites and Kirkland trophy wives
Being at a university where I feel like I am at a university and not a middle school, where the administration functions (even during lunch hours!)
Having any idea what's going on in my classes
STARBUCKS and Barnes and Nobles
Costco...omg Costco I love you
Almond. Milk. !!!!!!!
Taking a shower where the shower stays on for more than 30 seconds at a time
Family, friends (this should probably be closer to the top)
My dog (should definitely be closer to the top. Most of the dogs here are owned by the homeless people on the street, it deters the police from arresting them because then they would be forced by law to take care of the dogs. While adorable, I don't really feel all too comfortable asking to pet them. I haven't touched a dog in ages!)
Expecting people to just being friendly (okay, I exaggerate, people here are just fine, the students and people you meet when you go out are nice)
Saving some money....my bank account is struggling guys, poor thing.
I will miss:
Baguettes here, they really are better. I have literally lost the ability to eat a meal without bread, it doesn't make sense without it.
French: speaking it, listening to it, even when I have to struggle a bit, I love feeling the improvement... I'll miss that a lot.
Constantly passing people I know, stopping for conversations, UW is far too big for that
And on that note: the people. When you live in the same place for 21 years, you tend to stick with the same handful of friends you've been with since high school or earlier, it's hard, or just unnecessary, to branch out. Here I have been forced to interact with all sorts of people, it's been good.
Going out and socializing on a regular basis (in Seattle I'm a nose-in-the-books nerd). I don't go out all that often even here, but compared to home? Significantly more
Not having to deal with evil campus squirrels
Traveling!! Being able to book a 20 euro flight to another country, making plans for day trips, a relatively inexpensive train system, etc.
The tram
Being able to walk to school, i.e. not sitting on a bus for two hours a day (sigh... I'll miss that one a lot)
Feeling less serious about school (yes, I did watch that two hour movie instead of studying for history...three days in a row, BUT, the movies were in French so... I mean... it was pretty much studying, right? Yeah.)
The grapes here. They're fantastic.
Really cheap tea
The weather....a coat, what is a coat anymore?
3.15 euro full lunches (salad, desert, main course) for students (students' meals here are subsidized, unlike UW where they jack up the prices like crazy)
The blinds in Triolet: the block out alllllll the sunlight, I literally need an alarm clock to get up at 1030, one of these days I'm going to forget to turn my alarm on and sleep until 2 in the afternoon.
As much as I dislike Triolet, I'll miss being able to clean my whole "house" in an hour, and being able to rinse the whole bathroom with the shower head (sink, toilet, floor, yup, I'm super classy).
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