Things I Miss About 'Murica

Wearing shorts when it’s hot out- Here women do not show skin below the knee, even when it’s 100 degrees outside. Unfortunately, I only brought maxi skirts because I was too stubborn to buy skirts that stop just below the knee when I was at home because no one under 40 wears them in the states. That was a bag idea because they would have been perfect here. So, the difference between the skin color of my arms to that of my legs  is big enough that I look like I’m two completely different races. Today I was called Indian if that’s any proof that I’ve gotten darker here!

Free wifi- I was born at the dawn of the digital age and do not remember a time when I did not have access to the internet. Here I have a modem with very limited internet so I have to be careful how much I am online. There are a few places in Kampala with free wifi, but they are expensive restaurants and the wifi is also very slow. So, sorry if I’ve been behind on my snapchat game, everyone!

Pizza- I’ve mentioned already my distaste for Ugandan pizza. I’m sadly still going through pizza withdrawal

Blending In- It’s hard to ever retreat into my own head here and become another anonymous human here. Wherever I go that isn’t a so-called “Muzungu hangout” I’m stared at or called to by others. I don’t want to whine about being a privileged minority because I know that being a minority in the states is a much greater burden to bear, but I feel like I understand why celebrities like to wear sunglasses and hats all the time so they aren’t recognized. Sometimes you really just need to be anonymous. 

   Netflix and Spotify- I’m a 21 year old girl, what can I say, I miss music and movies!  My most frequently opened tabs online are Netflix and facebook. Thankfully I didn’t go to China where facebook is blocked, but Spotify and Netflix both cannot be accessed from Uganda. So I’m living off of my iTunes (which has not been seriously updated since about 2009 so I've resorted to my middle school music tastes [listening to Shut Up and Drive right now]). Thankfully you can buy movies and TV show seasons for 50 cents here so I’m not suffering too much from the lack of Netflix.  They don’t have the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt though, so I’ve had to binge on my allotted amount of internet to watch it. But that show is the only exception because sometimes it's nice to have a reminder that I can be strong as hell like the women in that show.

College. - I miss those careless nights hanging out my friends, talking about nothing, or grabbing midnight snacks from Dominos. I miss my sorority, I miss my gymnastics family, and I miss my school. I didn’t realize how much I loved Emory until I no longer was there.