America: Land of Friends and Family, And Home of Half-Price Books and Broccoli (December)

For the sake of my sanity - I don’t want to dwell on America too long; I still have nine months in Azerbaijan – this post is going to be a bullet point list.

Besides, most of what I have to exclaim about are pretty standard occurrences in your half of the world. (And your eyes are probably starting to burn.)

Home
- Indoor plumbing. Twice daily showers. A tub. Triple Win.
- My dog. My bed. Clothes I forgot I owned.
- Washing machine. Dryer. Dishwaser.
- Wi-Fi. TiVo. Netflix. 900+ TV channels in English.
- The Weather. The lack of long-underwear.

Family (+ The Almost Family)

- Meeting my sister’s boyfriend.
- Mom co-ordinating our sleepwear for Christmas morning (Like you’re really surprised...)
- Dad trying to explain the rules of an obscure board game to anyone who would listen.
- Gluwein and Christmas stollen.
- Grandpa warning me that my village stove would not meet fire code in America (If he only knew…)
- International phone calls for only 5 cents a minute.
- Watching awesomely ridiculous black and white WWII era movies with friends. (Guess who got Mission for Moscow for Christmas?)
- Six months of back issues from my favorite magazines, kindly hoarded by neighbours.

Food
- Broccoli. Salmon. Sausage-Ham-Bacon. Gingerbread Lattes. Les’s crepes. Lemon Poppyseed scones. See’s Candy
- Adam making dim-sum from scratch on Christmas Eve. (Thus, avoiding cottage cheese and egg noodles.) You can come back next year!
- The guy at Dunkin Donuts who made me a cinnamon donut on demand.
- The woman at Chick-Fil-A that let me order lunch at 9:30 AM.

The World-At-Large
- $2 for a SINGLE ‘nar’ – WHAT?!
- Why does my new favorite blend of coffee not warrant a 12oz bag?
- Getting lost in the grocery store/Walmart/Target/CostCo (delete as appropriate), phone-less for 10 terrifying minutes.
- my Vietnamese hair-dresser repeatedly exclaiming: ‘That sounds just like my family’s village’ while trying to salvage my hair.
- Half-Price-Books: $25 = 16 books = Winter Boredom Solved

Which brings us to the end of the list. America in 250 words. Be impressed.

I’m sure there is stuff I forgot. Or left out deliberately - I will spare you the details about every little thing I squealed over or bought. Most of it was mundane and I was a little bit over-excitable.

Until December 2011, America.