The 18 Most American Things You’ll Miss When Studying Abroad

1. Popeye’s. Granted, if you’re in London there’s no shortage of chicken shops but you know what most American’s know: that Popeye’s is the BUSINESS. You will have none of this KFC ridiculousness.

2. Real, actual peanut butter. Like sometimes you just want a peanut butter sandwich, you know? When you find some at your local bodega, tucked away and probably dusty, it’s like some brand you’ve never heard of and you buy it and it just doesn’t spread properly or it’s all clumpy or too thick. Pass.

3. Actually, any kind of butter, like when you go to the movies and you’re like wait…where are the butter machines? Liquid butter on popcorn = not a thing in Europe. How am I supposed to enjoy this movie when I’m eating popcorn without liquid butter on it?????

4. Going to drive thru’s for your meds, meals, donuts, coffee and liquor, too!

5. The marvels and wonder of corn on the cob. You may not even eat it all the time but you want it most when you can’t have it.

6. There’s nothing worse than having to pee so bad and then you find a bathroom but WHOOPS you have to pay to go in that puppy. THE TRICKERY!!!! All you want to do is pee.

7. High water pressure showers. It’s nice to be able to move the shower head around so you can get all up in your crevices and everything but what’s the point if there’s basically zero water coming out?

8. Butter pecan ice cream. Also not a thing in Europe — you can’t even order it online 🙁

9. The customer is always right. Try “asking to speak to the manager” when you’re displeased in Europe. See how far that gets you (Pro Tip: nowhere).

10. Stores that close later than 8pm. Your late night impulse purchase will have to wait.

11. “This video is unavailable in your country.” Ugh. But the worst is when you try to outsmart the system and log in to your all powerful VPN and you still get a message that says, “We know you’re trying to use a VPN to access this video and we’re still not going to let you watch it.”

12. Best Buy! Sure, Europe has its own big box stores but sometimes all you really want is a god damn Best Buy which, by the way, will be open until at least 10pm!

13. Paying American prices for American things. There’s nothing like craving a good old box of Nerds but somehow THREE EUROS for something you know you can get for 75 cents is treason.

14. Dryer. When you live in Europe you get used to air drying your stuff, but there’s nothing like drying your clothes NOW so you can wear that cute shirt tonight. Pop that sucker in the wash and you can wear it in two hours!

15. P-a-n-c-a-k-e-s. You can find pancakes in Europe but they’re not an essential breakfast food.

16. Speaking of pancakes, you will definitely miss breakfast for dinner. Not a thing in Europe.

17. Watching all the shows when they come on. You’ll get there eventually, but there’s something wrong about missing whatever Nicki Minaj or Kanye did right when it happened. Chances are the video won’t be available in your country anyway!

18. If you’re in the UK you’ll miss rudeness. When you live in a big city with so many people sometimes rudeness is just a fact of life, a way of going from one place to the next. I miss people yelling “fuck you!” and getting out of their cars and screaming at each other when someone commits a traffic error.

But, don’t worry. These are all the things you’ll miss about America, but as soon as you come back there will be a million things you’ll miss about Europe, too. Like those 32€ round trip flights from London to Athens!