What I Miss

With Mary in Maine these last several days I was feeling a bit homesick... I was talking with Abbie last night about what we miss in the US and here is a little list we came up with: (not necessarily in order of importance)

~ My wife at the moment!!!! Come home soon Mary!
~ Obviously the first on the list is people! Family & Friends
~ Dunkin Donuts coffee (fr vanilla?) and a bagel with veggie cream cheese
~ A really good cheeseburger... maybe one of my Dad's at their camp! (with a few pineneedles for extra flavor) Central American hamburger is o.k. but just not the same!
~ Driving a car. I have logged 0 miles since we left. I must say that gas is cheaper that way!
~ Walking at night. I love to go out walking at night and here it is just not a safe prospect.
~ Pedestrians having the right-of-way and people yielding to you. Never Here.
~ Life out of the city.
~ English
~ Going to the supermarket and spending less than 150,000 (colones that is)
~ Water. When it is hot we are landlocked and there are no lakes around to swim in...and the beach is over 2 hrs. away! Many afternoons I would love to go jump in the lake. :(
~ Moxie soda...no one's every heard of it!
~ A sermon that I can understand more than 40% of.
~ A yard without a wall, razor wire, gates and locks.
~ A neighborhood without an armed guard walking up and down the streets... although this does provide some comfort!
~ Paying my light, water and other bills online rather than in the bank (required here) and having more than a few days to pay them! (my water bill is generally due 3 days after I receive it...the first month we waited a few days past and they shut it off!)
~ A good steak...

Now, just to be fair here's a list of what we would miss here:

~ Almost everyone you meet wants to talk and know all about you. Taxi drivers, people in line at the bank, people in the supermarket, neighbors, ect... This is an incredibly relationship oriented culture. One person explained that for so many years they had nothing but each other.
~ We have found that most everyone is open to discussing God and desire to know more about Him. I suspect this is the result of a culture with many needs.
~ The climate is near-perfect.
~ The ability to go anywhere, anytime in a taxi...cheap.
~ Way simpler living
~ Chicken... their chicken here is really good!
~ Gallo Pinto: their traditional black bean and rice dish
~ Incredible fruit, Incredibly cheap. Mangos, pineapples (Mary bought them last week for .20 ea.) etc...
~ Spanish
~ Costa Rican coffee
~ Being close to all services
~ Starting nearly every day with sun
~ Afternoon thunder showers
~ Cool nights
~ Flowers year-round