What do you miss most about your home country?

I've never found a top class chinese restaurant in the US or Germany outside of a fabulous dim sum restaurant in Phili.

Nothing beats Jasmine in Edinburgh. I have a distinct fealing a chinise person may dissagree to it's authentisity though.

besides my family I miss the shopping...mostly the sales...there always seems to be a good sale going on somewhere! I also miss SUVs and big parking lots (I'm not the best at parking ). I also miss being able to take care of things on my own ...here I find myself more dependant on my husband because I don't feel confident enough in my German to take care of important issues. And I miss playing BINGO at the firehouse with the hicks and old people

Sunny christmas BBQ's and outdoors New Year music festivals.
The cold, white christmas novelty has worn off now.

Well I'm about to spend christmas on the beach with a barbeque, couyple of stubbies and my gorgeous german lass so in comparison to a dreary cold wet day in the UK where you have to brave the weather and walk 500 miles to find a decent bar or in fact any bar that's open for more than a couple of hours, I'm not missing a thing. Different story in Berlin next year though I guess...

Just to let you know that the weather over here right now is gorgeous I'll knock back a few carlton draught for ya

Don't think they sell them in Lidl Germany, just the UK...Just received mine from Mum, the gifts look pretty good. Maybe you can get someone to send some & just have them at new year, for Christmas you can make your own hats & buy silly gifts & shoot off a cap gun for the cracker

Tell me about it...my Alma Matter is the University of Kansas and for the first time in the school´s history, the football team has been selected for a BCS bowl and I can´t even see it! Basketball...well you can only guess how much I miss March Madness. Rock Chalk Jayhawk KU!


Do you live in the sticks? I practically do and our Schlecker store sells them as well as Edeke.


I DEFINITELY miss the Pacific Ocean!!!


Seattle´s International District (the city is too PC to say China town) and all the amazing Thai, Japanese, and Chinese food/stores.
Cypher, would you be talking about Cabrini Green or "south" south? An ex of mine is from Winnetka and even driving by along the North Shore the doors got locked-lol (paranoid suburbanite).


Decent Seafood indeed...I got spoiled living in Seattle.


Yeah people who smile in general and have a good sense of personal space is something I miss.

I DO NOT, however, miss Xmas in the States...Germany has a special place in my heart for this holiday. And I thank God that I am not being bombarded by political campaign: ads, calls, petitions, polls and so on.

and as many have said before:
Mexican food (hell even Taco Smell sounds good now)
Southern BBQ (with the rub, sauce, and smoked...the works)
Dr. Pepper/Rootbeer
COSTCO (so I don´t have to go to the store every other day and use all these "little" containers..which seems more work to recycle than 1 larger container) and Ratio does NOT even begin to compare
Free refills on non-alcoholic beverages

<rant> I miss the lack of the inevitable German buzz-kill involved with just about everything.

Christmas Eve anticipation is an important component of the US childhood experience. Here, everything's unleashed on Christmas Eve, and Christmas day is so anticlimatic as to be depressing for all involved.

I also miss going shopping or to a formal event and not have the evening spoiled by the indignation of standing in a long line behind impecunious penny-counters fishing change out of their fifth-grader-style kid's wallets (who on earth carries change anywhere but in one's front pocket? ... and don't even get me started on the single-most low-class element of German society: Tempos ... grow up and carry a handkerchief!) at the parking garage. Fer freak's sake open the slam gates and just let people come and go in a festive mood ... magically, they just might spend more! This extends to charging a pfand for everything at Christmas markets. Fer freak's sake, serve it in a paper cup and/or let them steal the mugs for advertising/souvenir purposes and not make everything an ordeal.

While I'm certainly not advocating driving whilst tipsy, sulllen designated driver spouses at holiday parties are a particular pet peeve. Fer freak's sake then, arrange for a driver, taxi or plan to take public transport and/or walk and loosen up a bit.

I also always loved neighborhood Christmas carolers coming around to sing and be rewarded with cookies and hot chocolate. Here, the local creeps will likely cite §Etwas of the Etwasgesetz against panhandling like they do at Halloween and call the Gestapo. Fer freak's sake, lighten up ... it's Christmas!

I miss the smell of my mother's cooking wafting through the house ... here, all the kitchen doors are slammed and the blower is turned on full for fear of contaminating the other rooms of the house with homey aroma.

I miss authentic laughter and optimism. An uncle who comes clomping into the house in his snowboots with an armload of presents without feeling compelled to do the typical German cat-in-the-litterbox routine at the front door. Grandparents who are more interested in seeing the grandkids at christmastime than sitting around with their abominable "kaffe und kuchen" complaining about gasoline prices/gas mileage on the trip down. Fer freak's sake, lighten up ... it's Christmas!

H.L. Mencken once described Puritanism as "The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." Find/replace "Germanism" for "Puritanism".

</a rant>.

Bwaaaaahhhh, that's the best description of that practice i've ever heard...

But that's not a german thing. My sister got new carpet and forced this practice on the whole family from then on. Seems everyone in the states is doing this now and I don't mind as long as the floor isn't all soupy from melting snow. I am one of those that has my feet in slippers all of the time anyway, but that description made me laugh hysterically.
Merry Christmas Everyone.

Yeah , because it's so much better to put a snot filled piece of cloth back into your pocket so you can use it again in an hour or too!

ROFL HAHAHAHAH I thought my partner was just "particular" (and I cook a lot)!

If one has to blow one's nose more times than a folded hankerchief folds, then one shouldn't be out in public in the first place. Throwing it away in a trashcan is no better than taking a poop in a trashcan!

Nothing's "classier" than an otherwise well-put-together German professional pulling a supermarket pack of Tempos out of his front pocket (no ...it wasn't his dick after all!), ripping open the sticky top, and honking away in the fashion unknown anywhere else in the world.

Trust me, when I pick up litter around our horse meadow, the number one item are kraut-snot-filled Tempos ... followed closely by McDonalds detritus and gas station beer cans.

To hell with them thar tempos. To hell with hankies, too. Just sniff that junk back up yer nose. If'n ain't nobody around, hock a loogy an' let'er fly, boys 'n girls. If'n ye ain't alone, swallow

I miss:

- family and friends!!!
- roast kumara
- the beach
- hokey pokey icecream, trifle and pavlova for dessert
- Christmas pud with coins in it and custard
- hanging out in jandals or barefoot, the warm weather

Oh, I completely forgot about that. And I must add to the list American libraries with their excellent multimedia offerings. Nothing remotely comparable here that I've found. And how about drop-off boxes so you don't have to queue to return books or dvds (not just at the library, but the video shop as well).

I miss snow! Proper dumping of it before Christmas...shovelling out the side walk and then having a sit by the fire while drinking a spiked coffee.

I miss my mom and family at Christmas. Shopping on Sunday and Pharmacies that carry everything! And all good Quebers will understand, I miss a Depanneur!!! (That would be a convenience store that is open 24hrs)

I miss blood noodle...

BBQ pig in the pan, oh lecker..

i had forgotten about the refill thing as well. it still completely escapes me that people can go through an entire meal (waiting to place the order and eat the meal) without drinking anything out of their glass

i cook all the time and when certain people are in the house they immediatley close the door to the kitchen, drives me crazy, i want the door open so that i can watch the dogs play and keep them from chewing eachothers faces off, and it gets too hot in the kitchen when cooking and with the heat turned on full blast opening the window doesn't cut it. if i'm cooking don't touch the damn door.

i wonder if i am the only one who is feeling a bit sad this christmas, its the first christmas that i havn't gone home to see my family and it feels so little like christmas for me here. the tree being put up so late (couldn't persuade otherwise), there only being three of us here for it. opening gifts and all the other joys of christmas being done on the 24th eve. and the lack of decoration, no lights on the house at all, miss my mums christmasy candles and smells of cookies baking. the mistletoe setup. hearing my sisters laugh and giggle about the things under the tree. sadly the u.s. family is all at my grandmothers right now. i miss the general craziness that brings the whole family together. hopefully next year we can be there as we will be back in the states for good. plus the absense of snow. new years will probably prove to be equally depressing considering that no one has any inclination to make a decision on what we should do and has resolved to leave myself and my husband to plan for the group.

i miss the years at home when parties were decided for christmas and new years around november. it was always such fun and took out the hurry and buy tickets as you would be at someones house. ah...cannot wait for next year already.

not to mention that going shopping the other day for all the things for christmas dinner was extreme. i could not bring myself to move the cart (left that to the hubby) because if one more old lady or woman with a baby knocked into me with their buggy i was likely to run them over. i have bruises from the carts that were pushed into me, people have no tact when it comes to stuff like that here, no i'm sorry, nothing. grr!!!

maybe i am completely wrong on this front, but i am used to the don't blow your nose at the dinner table thing. i don't enjoy trying to eat something and the person sitting at the table next to me or at our table blowing their nose. i was always told to excuse myself and go to the restroom for such thing. am i completely off or is this just normal and my family different on that front.

I am from Utah, and I miss the following (among other things) at Christmas:

Being with the people I love the most

The Wasatch Mountains

Blue skies and sunshine on top of a foot or two of snow

Snowstorms

The "correct" timeline (e.g. opening gifts the morning of the 25th)

I miss people who don't complain. And people who take responsibility for their decisions, like moving to a foreign country. For the portion of our home populations who take so much credit for being 'adventurous' enough to live overseas, we squeal like a bunch of stuck pigs. "You a farm boy? You'll recognize this sound, Squeeeal!"

Everyone in the world knows that Germany has never reliquished its crown as the Jammerlappen capital of the world.

Therefore, I would say that we're all assimilating the native culture rather well, thank you very much ;-)

If anyone from the UK is missing something like Food etc. drop me a line

http://www.bright-britain.de/shop.php/cl/a...CFQgsQwodcheoXw

That one seems to have quiet a few english delicatessen and other stuff, thought you guys might be interested.

In my response to my home country America, there are 2 things I really miss...Skippy Peanut Butter and The Pillsbury Doughboy. I just love it when he parades into the commercial and a mysterious hand pokes his fat belly as he squeals...OOOOOooooohhhhh!!!