Ex-pats or former ex-pats: When you moved away from your 'home' country, what did you miss the most about it?

Not an ex-pat, but I miss the States: Friends, food and NYC at night, especially Cornelia St. and Christopher (ah… the West Village). And Broadway.

Lemon jello. You couldn’t buy it anywhere in Venezuela. I also missed window screens. The weather was so nice all year round that houses were all open to the air, but none of the openings had screens. Those little no-see-ums used to drive us crazy.

OTOH, back in the States you can’t buy chicha (a rice and milk drink) at the grocery stores, and no one serves arepas or Frescolita. It is also expensive to get Venezuelan chocolate here. You have to get it off the Internet.

I also miss being able to grow orchids on the walls of your house. You can grow them where I live now but you need a greenhouse.

It goes both ways.

Bread, camembert, ad-free television, inner city life, news of what’s happening in foreign countries. There was no world wide web in 1988 and 1989.

@Darwin Next time you are in San Francisco, get chicha negra and Frescolita in the Mission.

Arepas at Yunza Restaurant Fillmore/Golden Gate.

Also we don’t have window screens or no-see-ums.

lived in England & europe for 3 years in and missed American breakfast and bottomless coffee.
once home missed camembert & baguette – cheese sandwiches in France – hanging out in the pub having heated conversations with friends in England.

@Darwin I love arepas! My best friend grew up in Venezuela, and she taught me how to make them – she even got me an arepa maker as a wedding present!

I only spent 6 weeks in Scotland, but I have to say, there was very little that I missed from the States – once I came back, though, there was plenty that I missed from Scotland! Picnic bars, 10p scones for breakfast, hanging out in the pub every night, drinking black currant cider…

I remember there being things that I missed along the lines of available restaurants, but people were always what I missed the most when I moved. Being a little kid who moves a lot, it can be painful having to start all of your friendships from scratch every few years. It can tighten sibling relationships, though.

@aidje – I know what you mean – we moved so often that I went to 12 schools in 12 years. Home becomes wherever family is, not a particular place.

This question actually reminded me of coming home to the USA from Japan during the summers. It wasn’t what I missed (emotionally), it was what I had missed (literally). I expected culture shock going to Japan but did not expect it coming home as, well, it’s my culture . . . Boy was I wrong! So many aspects of culture are always changing and I was far more rattled by coming home (probably because I was not expecting it nor prepared for it).

Safe tap water and electricity are the two things my sister missed the most. She is married to a missionary and they were stationed in Ghana for 18 months.