I recently returned to post after an extended vacation in the States. It had been over a year since I had been home and seen my family. When people ask me what I miss about the U.S., one of the first things that comes to mind is food. What about my family and friends, you may ask. With modern communication I’m able to stay in touch with loved ones fairly easily. Between Facebook, email, Words with Friends, and Skype, I can maintain those relationships, even at a long distance. But you can’t Skype a cheeseburger. So when I arrived at the airport, as happy as I was to see my parents, I was a tiny bit happier at the thought of swallowing a double-double from In-n-Out.*
*It wasn’t until I moved from California to Washington, DC that I realized what a loaded subject this is. It is impossible for west coast Americans and east coast Americans to have a reasonable conversation about cheeseburgers. It gets real ugly real fast. As proof - anyone who attempts to post a comment suggesting Five Guys is comparable to In-n-Out will be blocked from this blog!
I honestly cannot fathom how Foreign Service Officers managed in the days before the internet. It must have felt very isolating to be so disconnected from home.
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