10-32-6

With one week left till I come home, I decided it was time to pull out the

10 THINGS I MISS FROM THE US

1. Sarah.... if I don't say this one first, I might be walking home from O'Hare Airport next week
2. Sarah.... just for good measure.... or just say "family/friends"
   
3. Steak knives.... I can get along with the chopsticks, but some times I want to cut it first
4. Mt. Dew.... Working my way down to one per month wasn't good enough
5. Webpages showing up in English by default. The "smart" guys who program everything in http land think that since my IP address is in Taiwan, that I am fluent in Chinese
6. TV channels in English and NO SUBTITLES
7. Sun not coming up till after 6am
8. Smell of fresh cut grass in the spring/summer..... not much grass here
9. Target.... one stop shopping, and cheap prices
10. Being able to speak English at normal speed without thinking "slow down" all the time
    

10 THINGS I DO NOT MISS FROM THE US

1. Political advertisements... have fun with that one for the next 5 months
   
2. Driving a car knowing it's costing me some 30 cents per mile and is only going to piss me off to fill up the tank
   
3. Ignorant people who think if you can't speak English, you have "no right to be in the US". I can't speak Chinese and nobody thinks I should be deported
4. Flat roads with nothing really special to look at out the window
5. Being "average":) I kind of stand out over here and I enjoy it
6. Cleaning my apartment.... having a cleaning lady (who irons too) is WAY COOL!
7. Expensive utility bills that are 50% "service charge" (read your RPU bill and break it down).... plus it's still cool paying bills at the 7-11
   
8. Spam mail and bogus phone calls/messages on my answering machine
9. Smell of cows and pigs... no, it's not the "smell of money"
10. Non-aggressive driving... the cab riding experience here is actually quite the adventure

And with that, I bid you adieu....