Being in Ireland has given me appreciation for many things I take for granted in the U.S. Although, I loved my time in Europe, the lack of air conditioning at night was killing me. The biggest thing I missed from America, however, was the food. Don’t get me wrong, Irish food can be pretty good. A lot of food was centered around fish, chicken, and potatoes which I had expected, coming on this trip. What I didn’t expect was the utter lack of variety in which this food was served. By halfway through my program, I had started to notice that every restaurant and pub we went to had around the same eight to twelve menu items. For being a country famed for its potatoes, the Irish dining experience, for the most part, only included the tubular vegetable as fries in most meals. As Americans, we don’t realize how spoiled we are for choice. Being the world’s cultural melting pot, we get access to foods from across the globe and, at least in big cities where I live, this access is super available wherever you go. While I do think that a lot of food in Europe is much healthier than what we have back home, I appreciate the cultural variety and number of options we have in the United States a lot more than before I went on this trip. Overall, I loved my experience in Ireland, but I still think that America takes the cake when it comes to cuisine.