Missing...

My Mom flew out yesterday , and WOW, do we miss her!!!!!!! 6 weeks really sailed right by and I can barely believe we are into March already! I’d say that now, we are all missing home a lot . Pat did get a 2 week “home” visit in January, and he will be back again in May for a week. This is a blog about things I really miss (it goes without saying that we miss EVERYBODY tremendously, so these are things, and not people), and things I do not miss at all... and looking forward, the things I will miss when we leave India.
I REALLY MISS:

• Coffee - I got a big fill of coffee in Australia, but I sorely miss my morning cuppa Joe (OK, and my afternoon and evening… and even late night cup!) There are many things we have gone without here, which I hope to never have again… coffee is NOT one of them!
• Music - We have our IPODS and we download music all the time… but I never realized how much I love listening to the local radio stations in NY. It really struck me when we watched the Grammy Awards last month, how great the music selection in the US really is.
• Cold and rainy days - So this one might seem weird, since the weather here in Bangalore has been a carbon copy EVERY day since last September… sunny and 85 degrees, no chance of rain. Seriously…not a drop of rain has fallen here in 5 straight months.! It is beautiful every single moment of every single day. Somehow, it gets quite boring after a while. I long for my first cold, rainy day next fall. To just sit by the fire, with my coffee (and maybe listen to the radio!)
• My kitchen - Oh, how I miss my kitchen! Kitchens here in India are completely separate rooms in the house... like a bedroom (with a door and all!) I think the theory is, only the cook and the maid actually use the kitchen (not true for me). It is sort of lonely and dreary in there :(
• The barbecue. Even if we had a barbecue here, what would we really cook on it? I miss the smell of a steak on the grill.
• An empty house. The house here is never empty. Someone is always roaming around, doing something. The door bell rings non-stop (the flower delivery, mail delivery, bug spray guy, newspaper, water bill, cable bill, electric bill, Internet bill (these guys just show up at the door and you pay them cash... no kidding)
• Chudys buffet parties (and mostly Robin’s brownies)
• Milk. Real milk. In a gallon container. Pasteurized. Homogenized. Fortified. From Stewarts. Or Price Chopper. Or Hannaford. I have not had a drop of milk in India. Not a drop. Somehow the kids have not balked at the box of Nestle Slim 'milk' which sits on the shelf (not in the fridge) in the market. While on holiday in Australia, we bought a gallon of milk and sat down around a table outside the store and drank the entire gallon down, straight away! It was one of the (many, many) highlights of Australia for me!!
• Drinking water from the faucet - of course the water situation here in India is a catastrophe. Only bottled water is suitable for consumption. Even for cooking, water needs to be purchased in 10 gallon jugs. I can't wait to glug down a glass of good old fashioned Saratoga tap water. Not sure I will ever buy bottled water again!

I DON’T MISS

• Driving - there is a lot to be said about just getting into your car and saying “Home, Harish", then reading a good book until you pull into your driveway.
• Cleaning the house
• Yard work
• Running errands - It is nice to be able to send the driver back out for you when you realize the 3 things you forgot to pick up at the grocery store.
• TV - American Idol is the only US show we get here, but I realize that other than Grey's Anatomy, I really don't miss any other television programming. And it has been great for the kids... they do watch a few shows (mostly in Hindi... Spongebob in Hindi, I guess, is still pretty funny to them!)
• The crazy, over scheduled days ... you know the ones... soccer practice, to dance class, to ice skating lessons... oh and squeeze in homework and 2 birthday parties as well if you can.
• Fast food restaurants … would have been on the “miss” list a few months ago, but once you do without it for a while, you do realize how unnecessary they really are.

I WILL MISS

• $5 pedicures (AND having the time to sit for a few hours a week and be pampered!)
• The 7:30am-5:00pm school day
• School uniforms (oh, how easy they make the morning routine)
• The broad range of cultures encountered every single day
• I must admit, I will miss the Indian food... I may need to visit the Indian restaurant in town every now and then for a "fix"
• Having Pat around in the morning to walk the kids to the bus and enjoy our lounging mornings... just chatting and drinking tea for an hour every day.
• The travel... having the chance to explore this side of the globe has been PRICELESS!
• Last, but certainly not least.. ALL the wonderful people we have met on this journey. Some of them, I hope, will be friends forever!