The ghost of posts future
Well, my body seems more or less to have recovered from the jetlag (and Small Boy is getting there, and doing so much better than he did after our Thanksgiving trip that I can't believe it's the same boy!), but my brain still feels like it's swimming through mud. I can almost see the fog I feel like I'm walking through, and to try to write anything interesting in this condition would be folly. But here's a list I made up while in the States of some things that struck me as strange, or things I miss about the US, or things that annoyed me about the US. At some point I hope to turn a few of these bullet points into actual posts, but we all know about good intentions, don't we?
- Highway exit and entry ramps are strange - I can't put my finger on it, but it's scary to merge here.
- American toilets are shorter than Swiss ones.
- I miss friendly/chatty service workers - the cashier at Old Navy who told us about her trip to Finland.
- Portions are huge. HUGE.
- Too many commercials and they're loud and in your face.
- There were 3 school shootings in the 6 days we were in West Yellowstone. WHAT is that all about?
- International coverage on TV news non-existent (really - I made lists while watching the news).
- Plastic grocery bags are stupid, and they're so small you wind up with 8 of them no matter how little you buy. There is zero attempt to conserve.
- People in the US are so friendly - the woman outside the Pioneer in Ketchum with her dog Token.
- Coffee shops in the US sell newspapers rather than simply make them available to their customers.
- Why do the cashiers weigh your fruit at checkout? The Swiss way seems so much easier for everybody.
Those are some profound insights, no? I bet you can't wait to see that list expanded into actual posts. Just. can't. wait.
Maybe I should just stick with journal excerpts.
5 Comments:
Welcome back!
I have noticed a lot of the same things. Weighing produce at the checkout: I guess that's only done in the U.S. They must do it to cut down on staffing, since it costs so much to hire people in the U.S. The plastic grocery bag excess is appalling. I use them as garbage bags, which makes me feel a little better about it. And yes, coverage of international news is terrible in the U.S. They can only cover one store at a time and BEAT it to death, meanwhile ignoring everything else that's going on.
The school shootings, ugh. How sad and depressing. But if people are so chatty and friendly in the U.S., how does this gibe with the violence? A rage just below the surface? I don't understand.
story, not store.
Yeah, what's up with those bags? It's like the stores get paid based on how many they give up. I can't even re-use them enough - with TWINS in diapers!
And I HATE when the bagger only puts one thing in them. I will take it RIGHT out and put it in with at least one other thing. But shame on me, I left a can of expensive formula in the cart one time (that I had already paid for) due to my penchant for bag-switching! Luckily I returned to the store and somebody had turned it in.
How do the Swiss sell produce? By the unit?
These are all so true! I went down to Florida for a weekend in June for my Grandparents' 61st wedding anniversary. It was so surreal to pop in one day and leave the next-- anyway, the thing that struck me is how fragmented everyone seems to have become.
I would just stand there in shock watching people talking on their cell phones while checking their e-mails on their blackberrys even while they were flipping through a magazine!
And while wifi is undoubtedly convenient, how is it that people can't wait until they've finished shopping or drinking their coffee to fire up their laptops and go online???!
As a self-professed Internet addict I've got to admit that that's definitely too much of a good thing!
Your pictures are gorgeous! Glad you had a nice vacation and welcome back to the blogosphere.
Good to have you back. I love your pictures.
I really like the "fruit with a number" thing here, but for some reason a couple of the markets we shop at have gone back to the old weighing the produce at the checkout thing and I can't figure out why.
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