1. Coffee: I was never a big coffee person. I grew up in a tea-drinking house. It wasn't until working at JWT did I start putting back at least one Americano every day. I'm not going to say that I miss Starbucks like a brat, but you have no idea how good a grande skinny vanilla latte tastes after three months of Nescafe grains from a jar. 
2. Walking: Sure, being driven around in a van all the time sounds kind of awesome, but it's not. You have no idea what I would give to start at the Apple Store/The Plaza and walk down Fifth Avenue to the Union Square on a nice fall day in NYC. Or start in the East Village and walk through Soho to the West Side Highway and sit on a bench looking at the water. Even better, take a walk along the seawall in Vancouver and take in ocean, mountains and breathe fresh air all at the same time. 3. Air: This leads me to topic of air. The air in Kabul is thin because of the altitude and extremely dusty, well because of the dust. Sometimes it's hard to catch your breath when you wake up, let alone when you're running on the treadmill. To add to it, there is a rumor going around that 20-30% of the air here is filled with evaporated fecal matter... since some Afghans like to take dumps on the side of the street. I've seen it. It's gross. (That's not fair, they don't have access to proper means so they are forced to do it on the street. Doesn't make it any less gross when I breathe it in every day.)
4. Gossip Magazines: You all know the feeling. Come home from a long day; your head hurts, your feet hurt, you are annoyed, and all you want to do is curl up with a good trashy gossip magazine. I have many of those days and no magazines. You could argue that online gossip sites are a good replacement, but that's only if you have a fast enough Internet connection. There is nothing more frustrating than looking at a pink screen waiting for Perez to load because 75 other ex-pats are downloading Bollywood movies at the same time, eating up the bandwidth. I have caved a couple of times in airports when I see the full selection of American gossip mags calling my name. I am not ashamed to say that I've dropped almost $40 on 4 magazines. Hey people, I live in Afghanistan and earn money and have no expenses. Don't judge me for buying a $10 US Weekly. 5. Salads: They have salad in Afghanistan. The dining room will put out a really nice head of lettuce, some cucumbers and tomatoes at every meal. I eat them in moderation (I've realized everything here is about moderation, or you risk getting really sick.) But I also try and block out the story I was told about how the farmers get their lettuce looking so nice.
Once upon a time there was a farmer who produced some beautiful lettuce -- bright green, crispy and full of taste. He wouldn't share with the others how he got his lettuce to look and taste so nice. All of the other villagers were jealous of his heads of lettuce, popping up from the soil. Then one day, someone spotted the farmer on his way to collect his secret ingredient and found out his secret was human refuse, collected from the gutter on the street. He would wait until everyone was done with their morning dump, then scoop it up in a bucket and pour it allllll over his lettuce.
First on the menu when I get back: Arugula and Parmesan with some fresh lemon. Or maybe spinach with goat cheese and a light mustard/vinaigrette dressing. Honestly, at this point, I'll settle for a good old fashioned Caesar.
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