10 Things You Will Miss from Back Home

As I am on a roll with my Italy posts, I thought I'd post this one.

This one is about 10 things you'll miss from back home.

     When you spend even a little bit of time in a foreign land, you notice that things aren't the same as back home, and you will soon realize that the way of life you're used to is no more. In other words, you'll realize how good you have it at home in some ways; and thus, these are those ways.

1. ) SCREENS
   
   - Oh. My. God. You really don't know what life is when you find out that the windows here have NO screens to cover them. I.e. - bugs come in whenever they want, willy nilly. The world can literally enter your place of living, and it's terrifying. The bugs here are larger than life.
   
   
2. ) FANTASTIC WiFi
   
   - You will never say "ugh, my wifi is terrible!", because you will never come to terms with the struggle of the insanely terrible internet here. I really have no idea how they get anything done online here. From sketchy and stoppy signals, to blurry video chatting. You'll be right in the middle of a movie, and bam, stops every 5 seconds.
   
   
3. ) Calm Storms (okay, most of the time..)
   
   - The storms here can be the most frightening and/or surprising thing you will ever experience. Even as I'm typing right now, there have been two thunder strikes that have made me jump - and I've never, ever jumped from thunder. Yesterday, I was just walking in the Piazza de Duomo... and BOOM... water droplets the size of quarters coming down in sudden waterfalls. Everyone was literally trapped under restaurant awnings for 35 minutes.
   
   
4. ) Dryers
   
   - Yup, I definitely just listed something that everyone is so accustomed to and normal in every day life. Now, picture your life without your dryer. Dreadful, I know. Having to wait 12 hours (if you're lucky), to a day or more (normally), is awful for planning for things. If you want to pay 5 euros for a half hour ($7), then go ahead. But that goes against my savvy money spending ways.
   
   
5. )  Cheap Electricity
   
   - People don't realize how cheap electricity is in the States, until you're told that if you go over your limit in your apartment for the month, that we would have to pay the difference (lolz to that). This could also be the reason why wifi is so sketchy here too; I do know it's the reason why they have small fridges and no dryers - because they're energy drainers.
   
   
6. ) Air Conditioning
   
   - Remember on that hot summer day, when you were sweating pools? Then you would just go turn on the air conditioning, and in 7 minutes, you were in need of a blanket? Say goodbye to that god-send, because if yo're lucky,you'll have it, but normally they don't. Again, energy drainer. Remember when I said that they have windows with no screens? That's their air-conditioning too....
   
   
7. ) Having No Cell Service, Almost Constantly
   
   - This is real and horrible set-back for someone like me, because at home, my monthly txting rates are about 7,000-8,000 messages - and have reached over 10. This put me in a state of anxiety and twitching my first week here. It's really a reflex I had to control. Yeah, try and CONTROL a reflex. If you did txt, you can easily reach hundreds of dollars in a couple weeks - sorry mom...
   
   
8. ) Having To Plan Every Detail Out For Meeting People Or Going Places To a 'T'
   
   - I just said that you almost never have cell service, well let me tell you ridiculous it is to meet somewhere or know where someone is, when you get out of your beloved wifi radius. It's literally like going into the wild when you leave that zone - so you better know what you're doing, & where you're going. "Ohhhh, you meant at this statue, and not the one in that square?", or when you don't say any type of meeting statue, or stone, or structure... you're lost in the abyss of confusion and in the haze of tourist groups.
   
   
9. ) Free Water, Split Checks & Using Cards
   
   - I thought I'd combine these three since they're about the same thing, and they both need to be mentioned. I now realize that I take free water, and refills for granted in America. You want them here? Feel free to pay 3 euros for ONE LITER. You then comprehend that a liter becomes the smallest measurement of volume in the entire world. Oh, and ice cubes are like unicorns here too. I've only seen them twice... Split checks are the devil here, or at least that's what they act like when you ask them kindly. You either get charged a percentage, of course per person, for splitting it, or they don't do it at all. This comes to my last point. All I ever do is just swipe my card to buy things..ever.. but here, you have to figure out the master plan for money for the WHOLE GROUP you're with. This is the hardest thinking I've ever had to do in my life. You either: don't have perfect change, only have big bills, only have small coins, or in the end someone #always gets jipped out of some money. Understand how lucky we are people!
   
   
10. ) Family & Friends
    
    - Of course, among everything I've listed, this is the biggest element from back home that you will miss. You're usual people you hang out with, or seeing someone you know, at least once a day. You really start to miss these wonderful people in your life. I for sure have, especially in these last couple weeks. It will be more than an experience to see and talk with my amazing friends and family when I get home.
    
    

Live free. Be kind.
Stay loyal. Smile often.
#Always