Comforts of home that I miss most

It's some of the simplest things that I find myself missing so much about home. Like driving, Dunkin Donuts iced coffee, breakfast foods, friends and family, being familiar with a place like the back of your hand, and not having to pay to use a nice gym (I miss you Eppley). 

Some of the simplest things can be so inconvenient when you need to take a bus everywhere. Just to go grocery shopping, sit in a nice coffee shop and study, or go to the gym all require me to get on a 15 minute bus ride and honestly that's discouragement enough for me. Also, all university activities like clubs and gym memberships are really expensive here! I will never again take for granted having Eppley, Ritchie, and Cole all at my disposal at UMD and getting to take free classes whenever we want. And the one time membership fee for clubs at UMD, while it may be steep at least you don't have to pay a hefty fee in the beginning and then a fee every time you go!

And don't even get me started on grocery shopping. You never realize how familiar you are with the brands that you buy in a grocery store until everything is slightly different and smaller, and then they don't have like half the things you're used to buying. Talk about frustrating. After a frustrating hour or so in the grocery store you then have to haul all your groceries on a bus back to where you live. Not my ideal considering I don't like grocery shopping in the first place! Oh and don't forget to take some change because you need a pound coin to use a shopping cart (which I never have on me cause I'm terrible at holding onto cash).

I also never realized how familiar I am with Maryland and Washington, D.C. at this point. When I went home for Christmas every time I needed something I just hopped in the car and almost didn't even have to think about where to go I just instinctively knew. And we have shops for everything in America (or shops like Target where you can find almost everything). That is not a thing here, at least in terms of finding stuff I'm used to. Just buying all the necessities when I moved here in September took me to at least 5 different stores that could've all been done in a Target run.

Needless to say I miss my friends and family too. Every time my friends get together I have major FOMO and when my family is together for birthdays it makes me wish even more than usual that I could be with them! I will never turn down another family party without good reason that's for sure. Coming to England I expected everything to be fairly similar but that is not how it's turned out to be. The culture differences are immense and take a long time to get used to. Some of them (like no nacho cheese Doritos and no Gatorade) I will never get used to. Since I've sat down to write all of the little things I miss most about home I suppose you can tell I'm just a bit anxious to get back to the comforts of home. Traveling is fun but exhausting, and not being here with any friends or family around definitely highlights the fact that I am just traveling temporarily (even though a year is a bit longer than most people would go for). But the times when friends and family do visit makes it so worth it (keep an eye out for upcoming Iceland post, Amsterdam and Paris post, and check out my favorite trip so far to see all the special times friends and family have visited).

I miss this so much! Europe should really get on board with the donuts, they're missing out. Pictured @ my favorite hometown donut shop in Maryland, Glory Doughnuts