5 things I miss about Europe

1. Seasons - on the one hand it is nice never to be too hot or freezing cold, but I am starting to miss changes in weather, light, precipitation, atmosphere, and the clothes I get to wear. While I am longing for hot summer days, summer clothes, and having barbecues outside right now, I guess between November and January I will be loving the 12 hours of daylight and 18 degrees temperature we have here every day. But then, the grass is always greener on the other side!

2. Walking and cycling to places around town - Bogotá's pollution and traffic make this a rather unpleasant enterprise.

3. Laugenbrötchen, naturtrüber Apfelsaft, Bouillet...

4. Improvising your daily schedule and activities without depending on traffic. For example, you can't just say, let's go to the movies or for a drink on a weekday at 6 PM because there is no way you will get anywhere on time. Plus if you happen to have pico y placa (see entry on Traffic) you can't use your car anyways and it can be sheerly impossible to get a cab by phone during rush hour. So it's always a safer bet to plan when you want or have to be where and prepare accordingly.

5. A more "middle-class-friendly" lifestyle - this one is hard to describe and I don't mean to create any false impressions. With the stark social and economic differences in the country, you are somewhat obliged to follow an all-or-nothing principle. Without mentioning education or health, which don't really leave you a choice as to public or private here if you want better quality (and which I used to take for granted as free where I grew up), you don't really have places like IKEA or Aldi which offer good quality products affordable for everybody. Of course there are plenty of cheap places around (how else would the vast majority of the population be able to cope) and certain things, especially services, are ridiculously cheap compared to France or Germany, such as taxis, domestic employees, hairdressers... But in other areas (furniture, baby equipment) you don't get too many low-price but good quality options.