I have a confession

I have a little confession to make...
I am a little homesick...
I am not ready to jump on a plane but I would probably pay $1000 for some imported contraband!!

What do I miss?

Any type of Southern Food
I have been on a wild goose chase trying to find collard greens, mustard greens or turnip greens. We did find Turnip greens...sort of. It was tragic.
I walked into the local farmers market and found turnips. Where there are turnips there should be greens, right? I was so excited. I grabbed a turnip, took it up to the farmer:

Me: "Where is the top?"
Farmer: "Topo what deear?"
Me: "The top of the turnip, the greens"
Farmer: "Why woulda want that? I cut if off..use it for compost and to feed the goats"
Me: "We eat that!"
Farmer, looking confused: "Well, I guess i could save ya some from the rubbish"

So, at least I know that I can find Turnip Greens. Not my first choice (I'd rather collards but I'm despearate)

All of the Americans here have a Thanksgiving dinner together. Pretty much any American is welcome...we really don't have to know you. It has been a tradition here for years. This will be my first year but since i'm the gal from the South, the pressure is on me. I have promised to make candied yams, cornbread dressing, collard greens (oops, turnip greens) and green beans. I have been on a hunt to find all of the ingredients that I will need. The mythical colllard was my last ingredient that I couldn't find. Oh well. We will have to make do.
I'm still desperately seeing cornmeal too.

Football
I didn't realize how sick I was. I LOVE football. NOT soccer! Real NFL/NCAA football! I didn't realize how bad it would feel to have to read about the highlights from games on ESPN.com
Oh, it hurts.
I am a NCAA person. I have a favorite team in each division. My favorite will always be UGA (go Dawgs!) and UT (hookem horns!!!).

Two of my NCAA Loves....

I LOVE the SEC and could learn to love PAC-10. I have even devised a plan for my nephew to play for USC! The way I figured if he becomes a QB he can play for USC cause EVERYONE knows that the PAC-10 schools get more national air time therefore increasing his chances of being seen by an NFL scout! DUH!
I have missed crucial games and missed great upsets. It is so hard!!! I am like a crack fiend!! I cannot leave the computer screen on Sundays (Saturday your time) because I get updated stats and scores on the computer. How sad is that?! I used to watch HOURS of football on our beautiful 42 inch HDTV....oh well...

Don't let me start on the NFL! Poor Bruce has been sick not being able to see his beloved Redskins play! He even missed the epic game where Donovan beat his ex-team and smashed Michael Vick!!!! Oh the injustice!!!

Delicious, Stupid TV
Ok, I'll admit it. I was a bit of a TV junkie. I didn't think I had a problem and I'm not really going through withdrawl but I so miss Fall Sweeps! I would LOVE to see the season premiers of ANYTHING!!! I would love to watch the new fall shows. We are just a tad behind here. Only by about 2-3 months but still!!!
I am planning on paying MONEY for anyone willing to tape and send me the season premiers or new episodes of the following:
-Gray's Anatomy
-The Mentalist
-CSI Miami
-Heroes
-The Sarah Connor Chronicles
-Flashforward
-Numb3rs

Megastores
Please forgive me for this. This is not really a complaint, more of just a "ah, that was nice when I had it" kind of thing. I really dislike mega shopping malls and stores. I have a special place in my heart for Target, though.
I LOVE Target (pronounced Tar-Jay...sounds more upper crusty). Something awesome about walking into a store and being able to buy cereal, cheese, napkins, ziplock bags, asprin, potting soil and a BBQ grill. How can you NOT love Tar-Jay?!
We dont have Target here. In fact, the closest thing is the "Warehouse" which is such a sad excuse for a Target it makes me depressed.
Bruce and I went to load up on items for the house last week. We had about 6 items but it requiered about 3 different stores to get everything on the list. Now in the defense of our town, NOTHING is more than 5 minutes apart, so its not like you are driving in rush hour traffic from one side of the city to the other. You can either walk or ride your bike from one store to another. I have to admit, it is pretty awesome. But my old American self is still fiending for a little Super Target action.

Ethnic Food
This is a weird one. Since I have been here there has been no shortage of Filipino, Thai or Indian Food. (Most of our favorites). So can someone explain why I am desperate for the most RANDOM things?
I miss Mexican so much. Tamales, Burros, Chimis, oh my!!!! I guess its all my time spent in the Southwest US. I didn't even eat that much Tex-Mex when I lived in Phoenix or Houston!!!! I guess the saying is true-"you don't know what you got til its gone".
I have been missing other random types of food:
-Dominican mofongo-OMG, so good and SOOOO Bad for you!!! Its made with pork cracklins! Need I say more?!
-Vietnamese sandwiches
-Jamacian beef patties
-Buffalo wings-ok that isn't ethnic but I still miss them!

Once again, feel free to let me know if there is anyway you can get some to me!

Cable TV Channels
"Inside every skinny girl is a fat girl dying to get out".
That should be the official name of the Food Channel. Oh, how I miss you, Food Channel. I miss Paula Deen, I miss Alton Brown, I REALLY miss Giada de Laurentis and my favorite food porn-"The Best Think I EVER Ate".
I challenge ANYONE to watch that show and not drool!
Bruce and I would watch that show and make travel plans just to go to those restauraunts. We have actually made it to two places featured on the show! (ok, one was 30 minutes from our house :))
I miss Food Channel. If you loved me, you would lay a couple thousand miles of cable between your TV and my TV here.

I also miss HGTV, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and History Channel (yes, I'm a nerd)
The worst? TRAVEL CHANNEL!
We have the Travel Channel here but it is tailored for this region. I kinda miss seeing our Travel Channel. Especially the cool episodes about the best theme parks and the national BBQ cook-offs!
I used to watch Anthony Bourdain's 'No Reservations' religously. Could someone tell him I'm here and to put his show on air here?

Ok, enough about the things we miss. What about the new loves?

I LOVE THE SPRING IN NZ!
Between lambing season with the little cuties (loud little cuties) running around in the flowers and the AWESOMELY long days, I am in love!
How can you not love a day where the sun comes up at 630 and goes down at 830? Its not even fully dark then. You still have a nice twilight going until about 9! And they are getting longer!!!! I have been told that by summertime, the sun will not set until around 10pm!!! I have NO excuse as to why I can't get out and run!

No Traffic, EVER!
I know it may be different in a "big city" like Auckland, but here, nothing takes you more than 10 minutes. It is so nice to get in the car and drive all the way across town and only 8 minutes elapse. A traffic jam is one car in front of you at a light. I know that my blood pressure has dropped several points since being here.

The Veggies
I have no idea why anyone would need a carrot that grows to 1 foot or a 2 foot celery but it happens here. And people eat them. Many of these people here are healthy. Not because they go to LA Fitness 3 times a week but because they work on a farm and grow their own food and work the land. One of my friends was telling me about how her daughter walks around munching on a cucumber after school. Who does that?!
That is an awesome thing.

My mom, stunned by our 2 foot celery plants...who eats that much celery?!

U Talkin to Me?
I'm actually getting used to the weird friendliness of people here. People actually seem to want to hear more about how you are doing. It is not a rhetorical question that we do out of politeness back home.
I got to work last Monday and one of the women in my office asked me how I was doing. I answered the obligatory "fine" and went on to prepare for my day but she just stood there, waiting for me to give a full dissertation about everything I had done over the weekend. She really was interested! It's so sad that I still meet honest, innocent questions with serious caution. I can't shake the feeling that everyone is out to get you. I am learning to open up more and to stop being so suspicious. I'm working on it.

Southern Food Condiments
Yes, they don't really have "Southern Food"  but they do have all of the things that you need to make some good Southern comfort food.
I was feeling a little down, after searching the grocery store, I couldn't find bacon. They have bacon here but they use some weird part of the pig and it doesn't look like bacon. In fact, what they call bacon we call ham.
You can't make certain foods from back home without bacon grease. It is like the first ingredient for most things. A sweet clerk at the store watched me standing in front of the meat area with a long face. She asked me what I was looking for. When I told her bacon, she pointed to the ham-bacon stuff that they use. I shook my head and looked more down. When she asked me what I needed the bacon for, I told her "bacon drippings". Then she uttered the sweetest words I've ever heard-"We sell bacon drippings"
and then she pointed to a HUGE pint sized carton of rendered bacon fat!!!! WHOOO-HOO!!!!
Not only did she show me the bacon drippins, but she had lard and smoked hamhocks!!!! Looks like Thanksgiving is back on!!!!!
Check your cholesterol at the door!

All and all, I'm a little homesick but I'm sure I will be able to get through...

I'm not kidding about the Grey's Anatomy Season premier, though....