Things I Miss From Home

Date: January 11, 2015
Mood: Perfect
Weather: Overcast
Listening to: God Gave Rock & Roll To You by Kiss 
Reading: How to Be A Husband by Tim Dowling

Had a perfectly love day with dh and the monkeygirls today. We slept in and then we all kind of did our own things this morning and afternoon. I did some laundry and watched a weird movie, Honeymoon. It was a thriller of sorts and fun for a one off watch. Mid-afternoon we all went outside to play for a while. The girls scootered, hula hooped, and played on the exercise equipment by the track. Then this evening we caught the bus to Walmart to do some much needed grocery shopping.

So, in one of my very first posts here I mentioned a couple of things I really miss from back home in the States, besides family and friends. In that particular post my mind went in the direction of food, specifically pizza and Mexican food. GOOD pizza and Mexican food. There are, however, a number of things that I miss on any given day. It just depends what is going on or what is on top of my mind.

This weekend I've found myself thinking, on more than one occasion, about two things I quite miss. What are they? Wait for it; this first one is kind of silly. I miss.... Glad and Hefty kitchen trash bags! Bahahaha I told you it was crazy. Truly though, if you ever have the chance to check out a Hong Kong trash bag, or better yet a China trash bag, you will completely understand this comment. The garbage bags here are absolute and utter crap! We actually have to buy our trash bags in Hong Kong and carry them across the border just so we have something substantial enough to carry down our five flights of stairs to the rubbish bins. And suggesting that the HK ones qualify for this task is giving a lot of credit where credit isn't always due. Truly. The trash bags purchased in HK are of a slightly higher durability and quality than the ones we can find locally, but they are still a far cry from being anything even remotely comparable to a US garbage bag. They are tiny and so completely flimsy that putting more than a few handfuls of anything in them, and that is barring anything with pseudo sharp corners like an egg tray or box, will split them without you even exerting an ounce of pressure. Forget trying to carry the bags down the stairs to the building's communal rubbish bins. You'll be lucky to make it out of the kitchen/bedroom/bathroom with the bag and contents all in one piece.

I can't begin to tell you how many broken bags of trash we've had to haphazardly carry through the house and downstairs. Or how many trails of trash, or better yet- dirty cat litter, we've left going down the stairs. Yep, real fun. Of course we always clean it up and never leave the mess behind for someone else to deal with, but it sure would be nice not to have to worry about such things. One might find it funny to see how I excited I personally get when a package comes from my mum and step-dad back in Oklahoma. Sure there are US goodies like snacks, clothes, Christmas presents, etc to be joyous over. But there's also been a couple of times when my mum has used garbage bags to wrap and contain some of the stuff so that it was all kept together neatly if the customs agents had to open and investigate the contents mid-delivery. And when I see those US trash bags... Well, I just get all giddy inside and can't wait to run through our flat and collect all the trash I can find to put inside them. hahahaha Not only do they hold easily three times as much, they are durable, and they have those awesome handles that also work as bag ties. Aaaaaaaaah the simple pleasures in life. lol

I said there were two things I'd thought of this weekend that I miss from home, but now after my diatribe about rubbish bags I've quite forgotten what the second thing even was. Guess I don't miss whatever it was nearly as much as I miss garbage bags. :P Oh wait, I remember now... good internet! We didn't always have great connections with Cox, yet we didn't have the Great Chinese firewall to deal with either. I hate how difficult it is to get onto certain websites, or just online at all, here.

China is big on keeping things very manageable, and for this reason they find it far easier to keep the internet locked down to the extreme. Far easier to promote products, companies, and better yet- ideas that you want if the people only have access to it. There are ways around these censorships/blockages; however, they aren't always foolproof. This is especially the case when you are dealing with a sub-par internet connection, or one that is heavily inundated with seeders anyhow. (Because we live on the school campus we share our internet line with the entire school. Which, with over 3,000 students and several hundred teachers and other on-site staff, means there are a lot of people connecting via their own wifi routers to the main school modem. Also because this is a school they have their own firewalls in place, and these are in addition to those the government has imposed nationally.) I'd say it is fairly safe to say that just being off site with our own personal internet connection would give us a completely different internet experience to speak of.

My complaint specifically deals with how difficult it is to get online to post my blog updates and to simply check my e-mail. I can't without using a VPN because both are blocked otherwise. Likewise, things like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are also. Using a VPN isn't a big deal, but because our base internet isn't always overly reliable it means the VPN connection isn't always there. Hence my recently delayed posts. Not life shattering, but annoying all the same.