Freaking Out About Going Home

I'm getting on a plane in less than two days to go to San Francisco for Nicky's graduation, and I am media-having a heart attack about it. Not because I don't want to go home — I'm really happy to be seeing the family. (I miss you guys a lot!) More because a) I like Argentina, and I don't want to leave, and when I get back it will be halfway through June and I'll only have a month left and that makes me sad, and b) there's going to be massive culture shock in both directions.

To make myself feel better, here's a list of things I'm looking forward to when I get home:

1) Breakfast — Argentines generally eat toast or medialunas for breakfast. Only weird health nuts eat things like oatmeal (which I eat every day) or eggs. I can already taste my plain yogurt with granola and Craisins.

2) The crossword — I can read the New York Times online, but the stupid crossword costs $19.99 a month. The newspapers here have word games, but they're kind of like comedy, which is to say I don't get them. (Silly things like that remind me how far I am from being fluent in Spanish.)

3) Sweat — Women here don't sweat. At the gym, most of them barely top 6 km/hr on the treadmill, and running on the street is almost unheard of — although I do it anyway, and get weird looks. The logic, as far as I can tell, is that you exercise to make yourself look better, so it defeats the purpose to look gross while you're doing it. Heathen norteamericana that I am, when I exercise I turn bright red and start looking like I just fell into the nearest fountain. I'm looking forward to blending in with the crowd on this one.

4) Starbucks — I've been appalled to realize how much I like takeout coffee. It's so much more civilized to sit down with a tiny cup of espresso and a little cookie and take your time like people do in Argentina. But I guess I'm a heathen, because I miss drinking my giant 16-ounce paper cup of burnt-tasting drip coffee on a street corner between classes. And while the first Starbucks in Argentina just opened last week, I feel guilty enough going in the U.S.

5) Cheese — Argentines eat a lot of cheese, but most of it is queso cremoso, a soft, bland cheese that's sometimes so runny it's almost spreadable. I've come to like it, but I miss cheese that stinks. I want some good simple Extra Sharp Vermont Cheddar.

And really, I'm happy to be going home, if just to see my family. And to not feel like a moron every time I go to buy a pack of gum because the person who works at the kiosco talks too fast for me to understand.