Things I list
Things I miss (besides the obvious friends and family): Good live music. Biking to work. A wide variety of breakfast places. Cheap bell peppers. Nibby bars by scharfenberger. Delilah's. Shots from Brandon at the Map Room. The fries at Hopleaf. Grabbing a friend or three from the hood and hopping to brunch. Not being able to see my friend's new kid or another's engagement ring. Hot Stove talk as we get ready for the Cubs ticket draft. Honky tonk happy hour at the empty bottle. Public radio. Gorgonzola and pepperoni pizzas from D'Agostinos. Chewy bread.
Things I don't miss: Edmar, The Worst Grocery Store On Earth. Waiting 20 minutes for a bus. Mayor Daley. The president I didn't vote for. Pledge drives on public radio. ESPN and how it has made sports journalism an oxymoron and replaced it with sports scream all the time because that's better!. Crappy food at Tuman's. Cold winds wafting through my 80-year-old windows. Not having water pressure. The mobile tin cans of viruses and pestulence known as CTA buses. The smell from Edmar.
Things that drive me nuts here: The sickingly sweet smell of noodle shops here (which I must partially blame on my hatred of things that smell fishy, which I blame on me having to cook low-grade fish for hours on end in broken-down oil in splattery deep fryers). How they want to close an elevator door the moment they get in, even if someone else is trying to enter. How HK pedestrians are the slowest walkers on earth. How they don't put the previous two gripes together and realize they save more time by walking faster than by slamming elevator doors shut. How pedestrians wander at angles all the time, with no way to predict. How pedestrians just like to stop for no reason and no awareness of anyone around them. Hitting my head on the second floor of trollies. Hitting my head on the second floor of buses here, because they seem even shorter. How all the bread is squishy. How bread is often sliced twice or three times as thick as is reasonable. Feeling like Gulliver on every trolley I take. Peanuts that just don't seem right because they're kinda soft.
Things I like here: How they sell bread in 4- and 8-slice packs in the bakery outside my front door, but in normal, thin slices. Heck, bakeries on every corner. Smart cards that you use to pay for all public transportation, or at a 7-11, or at a grocery store, or at a Starbucks, or even at some clothing stores. Trains that run no later than every four minutes. Buses that run all the time. Efficiency. The friendly expat community. Webcasts of public radio. Buying beer directly from the Belgian beer importer. Doormen saying, "good morning," every day and seeming like they mean it. Cheap laundries. Never having to do laundry ever again, I hope.
Things I don't miss: Edmar, The Worst Grocery Store On Earth. Waiting 20 minutes for a bus. Mayor Daley. The president I didn't vote for. Pledge drives on public radio. ESPN and how it has made sports journalism an oxymoron and replaced it with sports scream all the time because that's better!. Crappy food at Tuman's. Cold winds wafting through my 80-year-old windows. Not having water pressure. The mobile tin cans of viruses and pestulence known as CTA buses. The smell from Edmar.
Things that drive me nuts here: The sickingly sweet smell of noodle shops here (which I must partially blame on my hatred of things that smell fishy, which I blame on me having to cook low-grade fish for hours on end in broken-down oil in splattery deep fryers). How they want to close an elevator door the moment they get in, even if someone else is trying to enter. How HK pedestrians are the slowest walkers on earth. How they don't put the previous two gripes together and realize they save more time by walking faster than by slamming elevator doors shut. How pedestrians wander at angles all the time, with no way to predict. How pedestrians just like to stop for no reason and no awareness of anyone around them. Hitting my head on the second floor of trollies. Hitting my head on the second floor of buses here, because they seem even shorter. How all the bread is squishy. How bread is often sliced twice or three times as thick as is reasonable. Feeling like Gulliver on every trolley I take. Peanuts that just don't seem right because they're kinda soft.
Things I like here: How they sell bread in 4- and 8-slice packs in the bakery outside my front door, but in normal, thin slices. Heck, bakeries on every corner. Smart cards that you use to pay for all public transportation, or at a 7-11, or at a grocery store, or at a Starbucks, or even at some clothing stores. Trains that run no later than every four minutes. Buses that run all the time. Efficiency. The friendly expat community. Webcasts of public radio. Buying beer directly from the Belgian beer importer. Doormen saying, "good morning," every day and seeming like they mean it. Cheap laundries. Never having to do laundry ever again, I hope.
posted by throm at 11:22 PM
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