Well, today, despite my better judgement and my desire just to stay put and in my pajamas, I decided to explore Britain's version of Wal-Mart: Asda (it actually is owned by Wal-Mart. Now I have confessed that I have been to Starbucks and Wal-Mart in just a little over a week of living here. How embarassing). I should have stayed home. I should have listened to my gut. The famous London weather has settled in: drizzly rain all day long, grey and dreary. I was comfortable with my computer, applying for volunteer jobs, drinking tea (and, no, I'm not some poser who started drinking tea because she's now living in London! I have always been drinking tea. At least since 2001, when I mostly quit drinking coffee...). And then I decided that I need to do something with myself, so I got out of my pajamas and into my only clean pair of pants and headed out to see what this Asda was all about.
The first thing that happened when I got to Asda is that I couldn't figure out how to get the "trolley" out. They were all chained together and I could see that people were chaining them back left and right, but when I tried to pull one out, I couldn't figure out how to UN-chain them. Finally a little old lady enlightened me and I understood that I had to insert a pound into a slot in the trolley, at which point, the trolley would easily come out. When I was done with the trolley, I should re-hook it to the rest and the pound would come out again. But I didn't have a pound...at least not a coin version like I needed. So she let me pay her in many penses and I took her cart.
Inside, it really didn't remind me that much of Wal-Mart. It wasn't big enough, first of all, and things here are just different than at home. The packaging of food is different, the food itself is different, the names of the foods are different, and I found myself feeling completely overwhelmed and unable to cope. On my list were a few things: wrapping paper, tape, scissors, milk, cookies, a loofah. Wrapping paper, tape, and scissors were incredibly easy. Loofahs apparently don't exist in this country. At least, I haven't been able to find one yet. Washcloths are also few and far between. Milk is easy, but the cookies completely stumped me. They don't have cookies like we have in the states...and here they are called biscuits. There are no giant chocolate chip cookies with nuts and oatmeal and all that stuff. There are no oreos either. That was actually my goal: I wanted to get Jim something like oreos. Instead I got ginger nut biscuits (which, much to my relief, are ginger snaps) and custard cremes...which I haven't opened yet, so I don't know what they are.
I guess the thing that was so hard for me today is that I have spent a lifetime learning American brands and the American way of saying things. When I go out into public here, it takes me 10 times longer than a normal person to count out a pound in change or to figure out if the product I'm looking at is the one that does what I need (like, "washing up liquid" is for washing the dishes and not for washing clothes or washing yourself).
To top off my culture shock experience in Asda, I got mud all over my only clean pair of pants and then, despite seeing it coming and pressing back against a wall, I got splashed by a passing bus, while trying to cross the street. I am currently washing my other pants, which should be dry in about three days.
