...and say, "There's no place like home..." I don't know what it was but I was awash in homesickness today. OK, I do know what it was an accumulation of a lot of stuff. Struggling with the language, Ally getting injured, not being able to find what I needed at the grocery store and multiple people looking at me like I had three heads when I tried to speak in French.
Let's just say it wasn't a great day for me. I nearly broke down in tears at the grocery store when I spotted an overpriced bag of six Oreo cookies. I almost bought them as well. I was good, I left them on the shelf and turned my back on the small but beckoning foreign food aisle -yes, it is still strange to me that "American" food is foreign food, but it is and since I live in France it DOES make sense - and went back to perusing the aisles of incomprehensible French foodstuffs.
At our local grocery store there is an entire aisle of cheese. Cheese after cheese. Hard cheeses, soft cheeses, goat cheeses...you name it, they got it...all except for the cheese I needed, Asiago cheese. I searched high and low and when I couldn't find it I took a huge breath and prepared myself to ask the woman at the cheese counter. Surely, they would have it there. Granted, I probably didn't want to pay the exorbitant price at the fancy cheese counter, but they would have it no doubt. WRONG. The woman looked at me and repeated, "Asiago?" in her thick French accent. "Oui, c'est un fromage Italian." I replied. "Non," she responded and pointed out the Parmigian cheese. Are you kidding me? We live, like, 5 hours away from Italy maybe less and all you have is Parmigiana? That's it!! You've never heard of Asiago? Sad, but true. No doubt if it was a French cheese I couldn't get away from it. uuuurghh.
I just had to get that off my chest. I had the same experience with Prosciutto. The people at the deli counter had never heard of it. THey were baffled. I am continually mystified by this. We have these Italian goodies all the way on the other side of the f#$@ing ocean why have they never heard of these products in France? And why do they continually look at me like a three headed monster? I'm the customer and the customer is always right. Except, of course, when you are in France
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2 comments:
We miss you both too...and I can only imagine how hard it must be for you..you are doing far far better than I would ever have done! Don't let it get you down...these are experiences of a lifetime..and you will look back with great pride that you did so well! Now, what happened to Ally? Is she badly hurt? Let us all know. Meanwhile I will worry.(it is in my job descpription...and I do it well!) Much Love to you both.
I hate those days of feeling homesick. So you see you don't have to be on the other side of the world for those days to creep up on you. On those days when all seems to be going haywire, close your eyes, click your heels 3 times and feel the loving arms of your Mom and Dad and all the family and friends who miss and love you too.
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