Missing

I'm currently stationed in the great state of California, but I'm originally from the east coast of the US. (Florida, to be exact.) There are still quite a few things I miss from my old life in Florida though. After all, I lived there twenty years, compared to my three years in Cali. And I find it interesting just how many things I took for granted in their availability in Florida, which seem to be nigh-MIA over here.

Take, for instance, Zephyrhills bottled water. (I admit it, I drink almost exclusively bottled at home.) Now I'm not a water snob by any means, but I had a personal affection for Zephyhills. To me Dasani and Aquafina water just tastes like the bottle  it sits in for weeks on end, and if I'm going to be paying for pre-bottled H2O, I want to make sure it at least pretends to be something better than what comes out of my tap. I never really considered that upon relocating to the west coast, I'd have difficulty finding the product. I mean, it's water, right? The most ubiquitous resource on the planet... or something... Anyways, three years later, and I'm an Arrowhead water fan now. (God forbid should I have to move out of their distribution area.)

Another item I've had to do without over here is barbeque. It's not that there isn't barbeque in Cali -- it's just that there isn't good barbeque in Cali.
Alright, alright. There probably is...somewhere... I just haven't located it yet, and I've been really looking. In the south, you kinda take these things for granted, because it's like person-car-barbeque joint. (Well, maybe not quite like that, but you get the point.) I'm sure, though, it's much the same as Asian food, particularly Japanese restaurants, over here. I knew of one passable Japanese restaurant in Florida, and even still, after visiting my sister a few time in San Diego before moving to this side of the country, I always dreaded the readjustment back to mediocre Asian cuisine.

So that one's a bit of a trade-off, I suppose. No barbeque ribs -- actual good Japanese food. I have block of chashu sitting in my refrigerator right now just waiting to be sliced and dumped in some ramen tomorrow night. The only ramen on the east coast comes in a bag, six for a dollar.

Anyways, when I was in Japan last month, I made a point to ask a few foreigners I met studying in the country what they missed most about home. "Mexican food," said one. "I would kill even for some Taco Bell right now." I mentioned that I had the same feeling when I visited Argentina (definitely the place for meat and barbeques if ever there were one). I couldn't get iced black tea for the life of me. Tea was always served hot there, and so I quickly established the habit of ordering tea with "un copa de hielo," or "a cup of ice" to make my own iced tea. We continued the conversation.  "Roll-on deodorant," another said. "I hate using the aerosols." We laughed a bit together, but it was interesting to hear just how similar the human experience can be, irrespective of culture. One of my close friends who's originally from Japan and now lives in the States lamented how much she was fearful of missing Japanese food, such that she's doesn't think she wants to move to anywhere off the west coast. Another friend misses the convenience of Japanese mass transit, a convenience virtually unknown in America, even for so-called transit-friendly cities like San Francisco.

In the end, though, I suppose it's incumbent upon us to cherish not just the big things but even those little things in life that bring us joy. After all, who knows when the next time you'll be able to find apple jelly in a grocery store will be? ~Tet
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