Things I Miss and Things I’ll Bring Back

Posted on 19. Dec, 2008 by in other countries

I’m going home to St. Louis for Christmas for the first time since March. This is the longest I’ve ever spent away.

Things I Miss

Family and friends – It will be hard to see everybody.

Pizza, buffalo wings, burgers – food is generally better in Peru, but sometimes I miss the greasy comfort food America does best.

Schlafly Pale Ale – first and foremost this beer, but I miss all the American craft brews.

Pilsner Urquell – Heineken is the only European brew I see in Peru.I miss this one.

Budweiser – the old stand-by.The world’s best-selling beer is not available in Peru.

Fast bartenders – Peru’s worse than Europe.

The Science Hip Hop Spin – KDHX Friday nights (St. Louis, MO).

The Roots reggae show – follows the Science Spin.

Delmar Lounge – I’ll close it down at least once.

Weed – there is marijuana in Peru but I’m never around it. In STL I’ll certainly be around it and certainly smoke it.

Things I’ll Bring Back

CDs – about 300 in the complete collection.

Boxing gloves and wrist wraps – these were on the list before the KO incident.

Jersey-cotton bed sheets

Iggy Pop and Clinton ’92 tee shirts

Swimming trunks – January is beach season in Peru.

BOOKS – the list:

  • Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  • The Time of the Hero – Mario Vargas Llosa
  • The Dubliners – James Joyce
  • Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
  • American Pastoral – Philip Roth
  • Underworld – Don Delillo
  • The Tipping Point – Malcolm Gladwell
  • The New Paradigm for Financial Markets – George Soros
  • Snowball: Warren Buffett & Business of Life – Alice Schroeder
  • Google’s PageRank and Beyond – Amy Langville and Carl Meyer
  • On the Campaign Trail ‘72 – Hunter Thompson

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4 Responses to “Things I Miss and Things I’ll Bring Back”

  1. Rachel in Peru

    19. Dec, 2008

    I’m heading back to the States for X-mas too and I was thinking of all the stuff I missed.

    I’ll be hitting up the Chinese restaurants for General Tso’s chicken and Bourbon chicken. I don’t know why they don’t have spicy Chinese food down here.

    Books are something I always bring back down with me. That’s an essential on any expatter’s list

    I also like that customer service still exists in the U.S., so if your bartender or waiter is slow you can complain and get some freebies out of it. – Customer service is non existent in Peru.

    BTW, Stella is a European brand sold in Peru, but I imagine you being in Arequipa some of the choices might be limited compared to Lima.

    Happy Holidays!

  2. Ward Welvaert

    20. Dec, 2008

    Pizza and Italian food also made my list of things I miss here in Peru. I agree the food here is great, but some things you do miss…

    Here are my top 10 lists (like/don’t like about Peru):

    http://wwelvaert.wordpress.com/2008/08/17/10-things-i-love-about-peru/

    http://wwelvaert.wordpress.com/2008/08/17/10-things-i-dont-like-about-peru/

  3. Marc in Peru

    09. Jan, 2009

    Hi there, I’m an aussie italian expat too, Felt I had a deep connection with latin america as soon as I clocked up my 1st trip back when I was 18. Lotsa memories, although I still call Sydney my 2nd home. Ironic as many expats I run into still consider their original hometown their real home, funnily enough I feel more of a tourist every time I return to Australia!

    Your experiences are very interesting, may I ask about the Lolita choice of book? :P I hope its not drawing some parallels to some chance encounters lol. Although any tourist can be excused for making that mistake, it is hard to gauge latin womens age since their street wise bubbly demeanour usually hides their true age very well.

    Anyways I have been jetsetting for many many years, I am currently getting to my early 30s (32 recently) and would enjoy telling a few tales of my own some day.

    Cheers.

    PS: If any westerners wanna make friends, feel free to email me. I might be australian born italian, but I speak spanish and understand this latin/peruvian culture intimately. Many say because of the ease I use their peruvian slang I am the white “criollo” guy, suffice to say with my keen criollo ear, very few things get by me when talking to some street smart fellas. :)

    marcopolo_3000@hotmail.com

  4. Colin

    09. Jan, 2009

    rachel -

    i haven’t seen stella anywhere down here. i used to drink it a lot in the states. fyi about stella – it is a high-alcohol beer and is the canned beer of choice in uk (at least it was when i went there). because it is canned and high-alcohol, it has earned the nickname in london, “wifebeater.” not good for the stella brand team! that’s worse than “diesel” for budweiser.

    marc -

    i finished lolita in a day and LOVED it. although it is obviously different than my case because the protagonist chases a girl in the middle of puberty. my chibola, while maybe not done filling out, has completed puberty years ago.

    fyi – i will probably be posting a review of lolita on my myspace blog in the next month.

    cheers!

    colin

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