Deutschland

Things I will miss:

• Cheap food, cheap beer, all of it all around delicious
• Extremely large selection of cool bars and clubs (I even went to my first dance club - and liked it!)
• Currywurst and Pommes Frites at Curry 36 some days on my way home from work
• My Streussel Schnecke and my Club Mate almost every morning on my way to work at U-Bahnhof Hermannplatz, as well as the wonderful lady who serves them.
• Cooking for and with my host family
• Walking to work every day, and taking the U-Bahn/S-Bahn everywhere possible
• Making up excuses to buy more colors of t-shirts at H&M
• Having possibly the most awesome job ever, and co-workers that I constantly get along with, and who are patient with my retarded german language skills.
• In essence running the school cafe, and getting to meet and serve all of the students.
• Living in a big city (that's not too big) that is as charming and diverse as it is beautiful.
  
• Everyone loves to put plants everywhere.
• Everybody bikes (and safely)
• I have never seen or heard of a traffic accident in Berlin
  
• Healthier living (I arrived wearing waist size 36 pants. Bought size 34 shorts in the middle of my stay, and they are now too big)
• Architecture, classical and contemporary (with a dash of soviet anti-aesthetics)
• People who can just sit down and have a beer and a cigarette to relax and chat, instead of constantly wanting to get drunk
• Being the only American in my group of friends.
  
• Speaking German!
  

Things I will not miss:

• Having to avoid dog shit and broken beer bottles every day to and from my apartment in Neukölln.
• Crazy grocery stores that are unorganized and have a poor selection.
• Unnecessary amounts of bureaucracy
• Unnecessary amounts of coins
• Milk that can sit outside of the fridge for weeks without going bad (and consequently tastes chalky and weird)
• Shit-shelf toilets, showers without curtains
• Flat land
• An unprecedented amount of mullets.
• Lack of air conditioning
• The sun rising at 4:30 AM and setting at 10 PM
  

Things I miss about home (and am consequently looking forward to having back)

• My car, and road trips to and from Charleston and Greenville, and my seemingly self-replenishing supply of Orbit White.
  
• Friends and family (duh)
• Seeing my customers at Starbucks, and knowing they are happy to see me.
• Having a larger variety of beer to choose from. (Also not having to pay 3.50 euro for a bottle of corona)
• My various after-work alcoholic excursions: DeLaney's in Spartanburg, Brixx in Greenville, Closed for Business or Kickin' Chicken in Charleston.
  
• The Clock (among other sinful greasy pleasures)
• Mountains! Countryside!
• Hamburgers and potato chips, the way god commanded them to be in Psalms chapter bean verse halogen
  
• Fewer misunderstandings, because I am somewhat fluent in English, and understanding slang and pop culture references.
  
• My PC and video games (though not as much as one would expect)
• Seeing stars at night.
• Fully-equipped kitchen!
• Fridays at Matt's