10. Grocery shopping.
9. And hot on the heels of #10…cooking. Every. Single. Day.
8. No one follows me down the street yelling “La-dee, hey, La-dee, want to buy a purse? A rug? A scarf? Natural Viagra tea?” like they did at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.
7. Meals no longer include Latvian coffee (delicious), Turkish tea (fruity and sweet), or six kinds of olives on the breakfast buffet (my taste buds must have originated in the Mediterranian).
6. When the microwave, range, lawn mower, clothes dryer, vacuum, or anything else we own that hasn’t already broken down this summer breaks down, I can’t just report it to the front desk and expect them to fix it.
5. I can no longer use there-was-no-iron-in-our-motel-room as an excuse for wearing wrinkled clothes.
4. If I don’t replace the toilet paper roll and clean the bathrooms, nobody does.
3. My family considers it perfectly normal when I join them for breakfast. My Latvian friends thought eating breakfast with an American was a special event.
2. I realize that contacting all the people I promised to touch base in August–once I got home and had time to catch up–will take until the end of September or possibly until Christmas. If you’re one of those people, please be patient!
1. Handsome as he is, the Man of Steel does not look like the Istanbul to Chicago flight attendant, who I’m pretty sure was the actor who plays Michel Gerard on Gilmore Girls. Then again, the Man of Steel doesn’t act like the character Michel Gerard either. For which I am eternally grateful.
What brings you down to earth after being away from home? Leave a comment.
