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5 Things I Never Thought I'd Miss About America While Studying Abroad

Experiencing the culture of another country is incredible, but there's just a few things that America has on all of them...

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5 Things I Never Thought I'd Miss About America While Studying Abroad
Nicolette Giambalvo

In This Article:

When you are completely immersed in another country for a whole month, there are a ton of things you learn to love about another culture. Their language, their different types of food, and just their different day to day life. Although there were many things I loved while being in Spain, there were also so many things I missed about the beautiful United States of America.

Besides family and friends of course, here are 5 of the things that I never thought I'd miss so much while being away from America for a month.

1. Chipotle

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Spain doesn't have Chipotle... WHAT??

I never thought I'd miss a chicken burrito bull with a heaping scoop of guacamole more than I did when I couldn't have it for 33 days.

This also made me realize how often I actually had it in America...

2. Air conditioning

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While being in Spain, I learned their culture is huge on conserving energy; lights, air conditioning, you name it.

Needless to say, my body had some major adjusting to do considering here in America we go from air conditioned houses, to air conditioned cars, to air conditioned buildings.

I had to get used to having a nice *glow* at all times of the day to say the least.

3. Driving

I never thought I'd miss something so simple as driving until I realized I was walking about 10 miles everyday to get where I needed to go.

And hey, I'm all for exercise and getting those steps in but a ride to class would've been nice some mornings considering it was about a 30 minute uphill walk.

4. Peanut butter

Someone should have told me to slowly train my body away from peanut butter before my trip to Spain, because I was having serious withdrawals!

Here in America, I put peanut butter on almost everything I can think of. Apples, bananas, crackers, toast, celery sticks, even just a spoonful of peanut butter is so satisfying to me.

So you can say I was extremely taken off when there was no "mantequilla de cacahuete" to be found in any markets.

5. "The Office"

One night I figured I'd watch some Netflix on my laptop before heading off to bed. I get all cozied up, so excited to watch my favorite show (the Office, duh) only to find myself having a mini heart attack when "there are no results found related to 'The Office'".

Why didn't anyone tell me that Netflix content was different in other countries?? I would have binge watched way more than I normally would before leaving if I knew that was the case!

While being greeted by all my family and friends in my homecoming back to the states, I made sure to get an abundance of all of the things I missed the most while studying in another country.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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