I thought that once a few weeks passed and I got over the glory of being "on my own" that I would start getting home sick! I was very sad to see that these "pains" were starting to actually be physical, and that's when it dawned on me that they weren't homesick pains, they were actual hunger pains.
I had lost a lot of weight living on my own. Money is tight, especially since I don't have a job! I had been surviving on soup, some days I was surviving on orange juice, or water. It sucks to be hungry, now I really do feel bad when I see those commercials saying how only 25 cents can help someone dealing with hunger. It was definitely true! Shit, I could get a nice bag of chips with a quarter, if I only had one! They should've put my face on those damn commercials!
When I did have money though I was craving things that I could normally get in New York at any given hour of the day. The great debate always takes place whenever my boyfriend and I decide what we want to eat! We were on an arby's kick for awhile, seeing as we don't have arby's in my city, the bronx, I was very excited that now it was at my luxury! Arby's everywhere!
There came a time that I wanted a sandwich, from a deli. Unfortunately, Tennessee was very misinformed about what exactly qualifies as a deli! I've asked around about these strange "deli's" to my fellow Tennesseans, everyone looked at me as if I were crazy. I tried my best to use precise detail in trying to get my point across, I would say: "You know, a deli, like, where you go in, and there's a guy behind the counter, and he has a selection of boarshead meat, and you tell him what kind of sandwich you want, and he slices the meat for you! You can usually go into a gas station or a bodega and get a sandwich of that sort!?" It hadn't dawned on me that I lost them at boarshead. "What the hells a boarshead?" "Why would you get a sandwich from a gas station, that's dirty, and what in Gods name is a bodega?"
It seems that delis down here are already menued places. You don't get to pick and choose! You have subway, jersey mikes, quiznos, or jason's, all of which have menus! All of which do not slice the meat there for you! It hurts me to think I can't just get up and go to the corner and get just a ham and cheese, and pay $2, instead I have to buy these $5 footlongs!
Another thing I noticed is that we don't have a fair selection of spanish food, or, halal food (that chicken and rice you can get from the guy on the street). Whenever I ask if there are any good spanish places down here, someone goes, "Well, there's Las Palmas, down there on Edmondson." And then I go through and try to explain the clear difference between mexican food and spanish food. "Well, Mexicans are Mexicans." No, actually, not all spanish people are mexican and eat tacos!
When I go home to visit, I have a laundry list of places to go eat at that I had once taken for granted! Who knew, that I'd miss these simple little things like ham and cheese sandwiches and rice and chicken from some guy who hasn't showered for weeks.
I like it down here in Tennessee, but there really is, no place like home.
