What I miss about America, Part 2

This is a way old unfinished post but I promised myself on twitter to post something tonight and it's really late, so this will have to do. Two posts coming about my recent hostel stay and a movie that I saw so please hound me about that. 

--Real, GOOD coffee. Although I'm not much of a coffee drinker (anymore), the few times that I do go there I'd prefer something besides watered down Nescafé crap. Olga's comment on a previous post reminded me of this because apparently Ireland has amazing coffee. 

--Stores being open 7 days a week with late/never ending hours. Chileans have random holidays all over the place, and fail to inform the gringos. And what with certain products not available in bulk and no 7 11's to be found, this can make a girl pissy. 

--Having access to public libraries, bookstores, and my bookshelf. There's only so many illegal ebooks that I  can download (recently read My Sister's Keeper, don't know why, it was awful), and I can actually feel my English getting worse. And that doesn't help the panic that is slowly brimming up what with having to take the GRE's when I get back.  (Update: GRE's will be taken in the spring, per my mother's useful advice. Yes, I actually wrote that.)

--Free printing

--Multiple places to study, especially late at night. The woman that I lived with planned her various raves to coincide with the night before an essay was due or worse, an economics exam. I have regular, graphic nightmares about these exams, so if soft jazz is blasting into my room and about 9485757 people in the living room are laughing uproariously, I may want to cut someone. 

--Not having to run around to 15 different locations to try and get the readings for your next exam and then not being told that I can't check anything out because apparently my student ID is from 2008 and is expired. 

--Not having to pay a $5 fee every time I take out cash, especially what with the paranoia that comes with carrying lots of cash around. 

--Being able to put on a seatbelt when I am in the back of a car. I only ride in cars here when I need to take a taxi, but these are usually driven by kamikaze drivers who don't feel like it's their civic duty to avoid pedestrians or dogs. Sometimes it's almost worth walking alone at night to avoid the terror. Almost.