04.03.2010 Favorites and Misses
Exchanging emails with several Chi-town friends (and hearing about the spring weather there! Whoa!) prompted me to make a "things I like here/things I miss" list...
Best things about being here:
- Running through the hilly English countryside and thinking about the last 1000 years in this area. As it turns out, a lot has happened
- Being rid of the mental clutter and habits that come from living in one place for a long time
- Living a life that's almost completely art-driven
- Lots and lots of music. As many great/interesting/successful bands in the Bath/Bristol area as in the whole Midwest, easily, I'd say
- Free health care — even for visitors
- Nearly all of my food comes from within 50 miles of where I live, without me really having to think about it. That's just how the British eat
- Bad meat and good fish makes it easy to eat healthy. Half of that is also how the British eat
- Two sheep in every park, instead of lawnmowers
Things I miss most, besides of course everyone I know and love in Chicago (that's too important to put on a silly list)
- American beer (you know, the good stuff, not what the world knows about)
- Cultural diversity free of connotations of class or immigration-status
- BBQ
- Mexican restaurants open late. Or, anything open late, for that matter
- Lake Michigan and its accompanying parks and trails
- Listening to records on that lovely monitoring system
- Speaking without having to think about accents
- The smell of the air. Here is nice, but I miss there
Thoughts?
Posted by charlie williams at April 3, 2010 11:40 AM
