Is this thing still on? *Klick klack ahem....ssscccrrrruffffeazeeeep*!

I was just taking a trip down memory lane via blog and I read one of my friend's comments from my kickoff post on my China blog where I mused about things that I would miss from home. 5 years and two countries later, I seem to have come full circle (except for Portland and Dr. Bronner). 

Kiwi Smee said...

1) Mexican Food
2) Dr. Bronners Almond soap
3) Biking in Portland
4) Real pancakes
5) Payless ShoeSource

September 23, 2008 at 11:37 AM 

 Mexican-Kachin food is a semi regular visitor to our dinner table; I've likely biked more urban miles in Asia than I ever did in the U.S.. We can also make real pancakes and even waffles (thanks to a lovely wedding gift) whenever we want to. But the Pièce de résistance materialized without warning just a few short weeks ago! There is now a Payless ShoeSource within a 15 minutes walking distance from my house!!! That's right! There's a new MALL!!!!!!!!! It has ice skating! It has a Sketchers shoe store! There are obscure cooking oils on tap in the basement grocery store! The welcoming aroma of Cold Stone met me almost before I dazedly moved through the entrance doors. 
Please don't think less of me for what I am about to share. 
While walking the wide spaces of this new mall--extremely vast and wide with a hauntingly familiarity--a gnawing melancholy began creeping over me. I know this feeling well by now: homesickness. But what was driving it? Obviously walking past Coldstone and Starbucks within the span of 20 paces did not help...but it was something more....something deeper. It goes without saying that I wanted to buy all of the things. But even more dreadful was the cutting realization that I was in fact homesick for consumerism itself!