One of the problems with studying abroad is that you tend to miss home a lot.  I was going through some of my digital photo albums today looking for pictures to put on one of many websites I’m developing at the moment and stumbled upon a folder titled “Home.”   I miss home.  I miss my mother’s cooking, her cleaning, washing the dishes, taking out the trash, and building a roof. 

Bills Suck

An advantage of living at home is that you don’t have to pay for bills.  Bills are freaking expensive.  You have your water bill, your gas bill, your electricity, your cable, your internet, and your maid.  OK I don’t actually have a maid.  I’m too poor to afford one – it’s more of a fantasy.

Rent Sucks

I’m paying quite a bit for rent here which is a big change from living at home where I paid zero dollars to freeload.  Man I miss freeloading.  To all you university and college students, live at home as long as you can because it’s tough out here.  Even when you get married, pull a Greek and move your wife in with your family!  Being an adult sucks. 

Cooking Sucks

I didn’t realise how much time it took to put together a meal.  Making it isn’t so bad.  It’s the part before and after that sucks.  Since I don’t have a car I have to drag my ass to the grocery store at least once a week and at least once a week – not to mention that the walk is mainly uphill with a very strong head wind.  Grocery shopping is freaking time consuming.  Once again I wish I had a maid or a personal shopper… or a car – either one will work.

Eating the food isn’t so bad… but some days I do unintentionally give myself indigestion… so that’s bad.  The cleaning afterwards is the worse.  I usually stuff myself until I can’t move anymore because I know I won’t have a chance to eat until much later due to my hectic medical school schedule which revolves around my even more hectic television schedule.  When you’re full like that the last thing you want to do is wash dishes… so I don’t.

Time Zones Suck

I think the most frustrating thing about studying abroad in a different hemisphere and time zone is that whenever I’m awake my family and friends from back home are sleeping so I rarely talk to them.  In my case, there’s about a 2 hour window where both sides of my world are awake and sometimes I just forget… OK most of the time I just forget.  So it’s very common for me to go 2 or 3 weeks without talking to anybody from home.  Maybe it’s better that way because I know that if I talked to them more often, I would miss them even more. 

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