"What do you miss most about home?"

In addition to "What do you do for a living that lets you travel for a year?", "Where have you been?", and "What's the deal with your Congress?", questions about what I miss after a year travel is one of the most common. Truth be told, modern globalism means there isn't much available in Washington DC that I can't get in any major metropolitan area anywhere in the world, so I haven't been without most foods, music, TV, etc. for long enough to really rise to the level of making me "homesick". As I miss some things, I can find them in the next airport or capital city, and spending nearly a month recently in London certainly caught me up on a lot of the foods and drinks I'd been doing without.

However, there are certainly a lot of experiences or comforts I've been lacking most of the time, and as things have occurred to me over the last couple of months, I've been noting them down, so I can remember what to appreciate when I'm back in DC. Don't think that these can't be found in other countries, just that if you spend most of your time with backpackers in hostels, you're likely to feel the same way after a while.

• Good drinks with old friends - I don't just mean high-quality beer, wine, and alcohol. I mean having good drinks with good friends who I've known for years. I've actually come to enjoy meeting new people and going out for drinks with them, but there is something so relaxing and cozy about having a happy hour or brunch with someone you know well enough that you don't have to try at being social... AND I mean high-quality beer, wine, and alcohol. Most of the countries I've visited think "micro-brewed" means Amstel or Coors. 
• Speedy wi-fi - Ridiculous, I know, given that I've found very few places that don't have access at all, but there's nothing entertaining about going back to dial-up speeds. So I'm attached to my internet... again, sue me.
• Clean clothes - I've never felt as consistently grubby as I have this year, and I never thought I would actually think "yay!" after getting a bundle of laundry back. I'm more comfortable with wearing dirty clothes now than I used to be (I won't tell you how many days I've been wearing this same outfit now), but I just like having clean clothes to put on.
• Having more than 3 sets of clothes - Seeing a pattern? 
• Hot water showers, and a soft towel after - Pure luxury.
• Not feeling like there are bugs on me - No, I'm not infested with bedbugs, but I have been spending a lot of time in tropical countries. First, you spend all of your time swatting the flies, gnats, and mosquitoes away. Then, you just give up because it's too hot and too much trouble. And finally, you begin to feel them even when they're not there. That usually starts the cycle over again for me.
• Feeling like I belong - I wrote about "the panda factor" and feeling like everyone is staring at me where ever I go in India, southeast Asia, and South America, but it does get old. Of course, I've noticed that I start to get antsy in places I blend in too, so I don't know what to do about that...
• Beds that are longer than 5 feet, 10 inches - Outside western Europe, I'm usually taller than the locals, and the length of the beds can be a challenge. Stubbing your toes when stretching out doesn't make for sound sleep.
• Unsweetened and/or freshly brewed iced tea - One thing that no country besides the US, Japan, and the Philippines seems to understand, even the ones that adore hot tea. It's refreshing, people!!
• Not feeling like it's time to re-apply mosquito repellent, or sunscreen, or both - I hate them both so much. Only slightly less than I hate sunburns, skin cancer, and malaria.
• Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting - it's my favorite, and a rarity to find it done well outside the States.

That's honestly about it. Almost all of them could be taken care of by staying in "higher class" (i.e. more expensive) accommodation, which I've found means losing a lot of the local experience and social connections with fellow travelers. So instead of feeling deprived of any of my usual creature comforts, I prefer to think of as being enriched with new friends... and sometimes dirt, bugs, and sunburns.