I’m around 4,500 miles away from Texas, my home for the past 20 years. I am loving Ireland, but I’ve been getting so homesick in the past few weeks. Of course I miss my friends, family and pets, but I also just miss living in Texas. If Ireland and Texas were to have a cultural exchange these are the things that I think should come to Ireland.

1.     Breakfast Tacos. Breakfast tacos are one of the best things to come out of Texas. They are the best breakfast and generally inexpensive, everything you need wrapped up in a tortilla. I’ve been making them a lot since getting here, and they are the perfect thing to remind me of home. I even got to introduce them to my housemates (I think they were rather unimpressed). They are easy to take on the go. Bring them to Ireland please!

2.     The Sun. I am always cold here. I miss the blistering sun. I miss getting a slight tan if I go outside for too long. I want to be pelted by 80º sun rays. There is sun in Ireland, but it comes out in spare moments between rain and clouds. I’m thankful for those spare moments, but it’s just not the same. I’m pale and cold and ready to return to my sunny state. I want to feel like a lizard under a heat lamp, and Ireland just can’t give that to me.

3.     Tequila Cocktails. As a margarita and paloma lover, I need tequila cocktails to make their way to Ireland. In Ireland, you can’t just pop into any old bar and order a margarita on the rocks. The tequila is terrible, and most bars don’t even have the right salt. My first week in Ireland, I ordered a margarita at a random pub and they put table salt on the rim. I only found one bar that made them the right way with Tajin on the rim and with acceptable tequila. I think the margarita is such a classic cocktail that should make its way into every bar all over the world.

4.    Baseball. This is my first time away from the U.S. for opening day of the Major League Baseball season. I love baseball so much. It reminds me of my friends, my family and my home. Not being able to keep up with the early season makes me so sad. I saw a video on TikTok of the Houston Astros winning the 2022 World Series and cried, because I knew I wouldn’t be able to go to a game until mid-June. To combat my FOMO, I got all dressed up on opening day in my Astro’s merch and it made me feel a little closer to home.

5.     Concerts. When I’m in the U.S., I switch between living in Austin and living in Houston. I am used to going to concerts at least nine times a year when living in these cities. I always have a live music event to look forward to. I know I am very lucky to live between those two places, one being the live music capital of the world and the other being a major city with many music events. Most artists tour in Austin or Houston. In Ireland, this is a bit different. Tours will just skip over the country or will only have shows in Dublin or Belfast. There’s tons of local live music to quench this concert going thirst, but it’s not at the scale I’m used to. Everything is bigger in Texas, including the live music events.

Although I am hard-core missing Texas, I know I will come to feel this way about Ireland. I have spent the last three months making this new country my home. I may be homesick now, but come August, I know I’ll miss the Emerald Isle just as much.