August 7, 2009

Home

What I don't miss:
  • Squat toilets
  • How the people throw toilet paper in the trash can instead of flushing it down the toilet... which completely stinks up the restroom
  • Finding lizards in the bathroom while I'm taking a shower
  • The polluted, muggy air of the city
  • Feeling like I pissed in my pants every time I walked outside in the humid air in jeans
  • Having to worry if I'd get food poisoning from eating food from the night markets
  • Getting lost trying to figure out how to transfer lines on the metro
  • Spending at least thirty minutes trying to figure out how to meet a friend
  • Having someone go up to you in the park and ask if you're from Thailand (because your skin is so tan compared to everyone else)
  • Having a saleslady go up to you in the department store and ask you if you're looking for a skin whitening cream (because your skin is so tan, and pale is beauty)
  • Having to wash clothes in the hotel room's sink because all the laundry machines are taken
  • How some areas of the city smell horrendously of sewage

What I do miss:
  • Being able to shop freely at the night markets because you have no sense of cheap/expensive when you have to keep converting the prices into American dollars in your head
  • Teasing my students and training them to make fun of my teaching partner as well -- all in good humor, of course
  • Making fun of teaching partner and laughing at his atrocious accent during class
  • Hanging out with my Kinmen family -- who really did become like a family to me
  • Staying up until 3 am talking to my "exes" (ex-roommates) -- taking silly pictures on the roof, discussing certain "fruits," coming up with silly English dubs for TV dramas that we didn't understand
  • Really getting to know my paternal grandparents, whom I have not seen in four years and have rarely visited in my 18 years of existence
  • Talking to my maternal grandmother, who I deeply admire -- even at her age, she is very headstrong, independent, and active. When I grow old, I would much rather be like her than sit around the couch all day watching daytime soaps.
  • Letting my cousin take me around the city and showing me around
  • The FOOD (everything is delicious until you realize you've gotten food poisoning)
  • The PEOPLE -- groupmates, roommates, friends, family -- I miss them like hell.
On the other hand, I don't miss things like this...

Pear (1:10:01 AM): WOW
Pear (1:10:05 AM): u done yet?
Pear (1:10:08 AM): woman...U SLOW
Sophelia (1:10:18 AM): shut it
Pear (1:10:18 AM): MAKE ME A SANDWICH

1 comment:

y said...

At least you only had lizards, I found tarantulas in the bathrooms I went to in China. I'd take reptiles over atrociously sized arachnids any day.