Before leaving the United States for China, I told most people who asked about my trip that I expected to miss the small things about life at home the most; and I was right. During breakfast, it isn’t the substitution of scrambled for hard-boiled eggs that bothers me. It isn’t the smaller portion sizes at lunch and dinner or even the cooked chicken feet that I have noticed the most. It’s the lack of ice cold drinks that I can’t seem to make myself accept.

I never realized how much I appreciated an ice cold drink in the morning or an ice cold glass of water with dinner until getting to China. I rarely drink it at home, but because it’s one of the few things commonly kept cold here, I have without a doubt drank more soda since arriving in China than I have in the past two years of my life. Even if most drinks were just served at room temperature, I think I could handle them.  But some drinks that have been served are obviously cooling after just having been boiled. Two nights ago, at what we were told was one of the nicest restaurants in Shanghai, I ordered a glass of water expecting it to be cold, forgetting the way drinks had been served to me in the past. I was disappointed when the waiter brought out a glass of water too hot for me to even pick up without burning my fingers.

I can’t wait to get back to Indiana to be spoiled by a refrigerator filled with cold milk and green tea.