echo de menos... // i miss...

while pondering over the perfect title for this post, i was flipping through my spanish/english dictionary {my best friend as of late} and went to double check the verb for "to miss; to long for." i was almost positive it was common to use me extraño, but the few times i had google translated it i was getting something else - echar de menos. turns out echar de menos is the correct way "to long for" something, while the verb extrañar is "to surprise; to find strange, not be used to."

my whole entire two weeks of residency with my native speaking host family has consisted of multiple times of me telling them: i just talked to my family. me extraño mucho! or apparently: "i surprise/am not used to/find my family strange."

well that's awkward.

the sad thing is that's probably not the most bizarre they've heard me say. at least i'm providing them with some laughs? our entire group's go-to phrase for uncomfortable situations is: sorry, we're american. and clueless.

speaking of the united states and the plethora of super rad things in it, there have been a few surprising things that have popped into my head these past couple of weeks that suddenly i crave or i extraño echo de menos, like...

oh! and this excludes family, friends, and fluffy brown poodles, of course! cuz they're a given!

+ panera bread {the mac & cheese if we're getting into specifics}

+ americanized mexican cuisine {holla at me pancheros, carlos o'kelly's and SUPER NACHOS. our

   mexican food stereotype is so, so wrong. i'm almost mad! i could not have been more ill-prepared!}

+ americanized chinese cuisine {i actually haven't tried the chinese restaurant here but there's just something

   about eating chinese in mexico that makes me a little uneasy? the mexican burger king, however, is

   a keeper! and they deliver! on bikes. it's the cutest. but i refuse to let myself stoop so low as to order

   take out BK, because walking there is my only mental justification of the consume-ation of those calories.

   so there}.

+ americanized italian cuisine

+ americanized american cuisine. the pizza sauce here shockingly resembles more of an enchilada

   sauce than a marinara? ps: "american sausage" is NOT sausage, people. it's hot dog! so don't order

   american sausage pizza! don't do it! {also, aren't you american folk just slightly embarrassed that we get

   associated with the hot dog?? i mean, ew!}

+ apparently food in general {but the food here is also extremely satisfying, just different. i don't know it

   well enough to crave it yet, which is a bummer since one of my greatest hobbies and/or talents is food

   craving. although corn tortillas are making their way up there! i get an occasional hankering for 

   those babies}.

+ wearing magic pants on a daily basis. and even more so, my magic pants + fuzzy ankle socks combo.

   now that's a winner! {and i wonder why i'm single. this screams cat lady! for the record, i'm a

   dog person}.

+ i had this absurd moment the other evening where i was getting all pouty and jealous of the people

   back home who were experiencing a blizzard while i was sitting on my bed wringing the sweat out of

   that day's outfit into a puddle on the sticky, humid floor {i'm a drama queen}, but then i laid

   down for a few minutes and let that wave of nostalgia pass and sat back up and remembered i hate

   snow and cold. so nope, still not missing the weather.

+ the simplicity of and comfort in my quiet neighboorhood in my sweet little hometown. the city

   life is a different one.

+ frozen yogurt. drool.

i might have forgotten to mention that a majority of this list was thunk up during my post-flu bug stage in which my had-been sickie self had improved and was starving yet lacked an appetite and desire to actually eat anything, so i was left to reminisce on the good times and fantasize about the moments in which food and i would be reunited. and until i acquire a taste for authentic mexican food, americanized is what the tastebuds go by. and it's what they say or the highway!

and right now they're screaming at me, starbucks! starbucks!

ugh, i guess i have to listen.
adios!

*update* i was discussing this embarrassing realization with my chilean professor this morning and she reassured me that me extraño is in fact a way to say you miss someone/thing! phew! you just have to remember the "me" beforehand. ;)
sigh. relieved.