One of the most common questions I get from friends/family/strangers is what is it like? What is different from America? This is a REALLY hard question to answer...let me start by saying even the toilets flush different. The phones ring different. The food is different. The houses are different. The transportation is different. The fashion is different. The schools are different. The entertainment is different. So, when someone asks the innocent question of what is it like (and they actually want an answer...there are loads of people who ask and don’t really want to know), where do I begin without turning the answer into the entire dinner conversation?
Okay. Let’s start with the bathrooms in our house. Before I answer though, just remember that we have a brand-new, just finished, flat in a brand-new, not-totally-finished, building. We are very fortunate to have very modern decor. The shower head is removable so that you can use it in the tub. That seemed to be an across-the-board shower in every flat we looked in during our search. The toilet is not only built different, but it flushes different. There is also something strange with the water...the toilets must be cleaned every day or you will know that they weren’t cleaned if you catch my drift. It just smells like a sewer sometimes!
The kitchen is tucked away behind a closed door so that you can’t see it from the family room, which is quite the opposite of every house I’ve owned where you want the kitchen to be the focal point of your home. I finally got the refrigerator that has the freezer on the bottom, but what I hadn’t bargained on is that it is very small. I recently traveled back to the States with my daughter and had incredible grocery envy! The amount of things that you can keep in a full-size refrigerator is ridiculous! Our microwave is terrific, but when it finishes zapping something it will beep until you open the door - there doesn’t seem to be any kind of time limit on that and it isn’t adjustable! With no oven or dishwasher I have become a very different cook. It often feels like Thanksgiving at my house in the evenings...not the fun part...the everyone has left and now I get to do all of the dishes by hand part! Dish washing is definitely a skill that gets better the more you do it though! We actually have two stoves. One is a gas burner and although it takes loads of patience to get it working, it is fantastic for wok cooking. The other stove is an induction stove that has two burners, although you can’t fit two American-sized pots on it! It’s quite a juggling act to get a big dinner done!
The laundry room, which doubles as a maid’s quarters, is down six steps from our kitchen. It has its own bathroom with an RV style shower head. The “bed” is on top of our washer/dryer. We will not have a helper until our Rwandan adoption goes through for legal reasons, but needless to say, I cannot wait until we have a little help! The fact that I have to clean the house and grocery shop every day really takes away from my time with Makena...it will be incredibly nice to be able to share the burden of that with someone. I realize how ridiculous that must sound to my American friends, but let me tell you, as someone who has never had help, you really need help here! Ugh...
Now the difference in restaurants starts with drinks. You always get bottled water and if you order a soda or something comparable you only get one glass. If you want more you buy another. Even in the really nice restaurants. Going back to the States, one of my biggest shocks was the unlimited soda and condiments! Sounds very strange, but boy did that seem weird. I don’t think I even need to discuss the food differences. Night and day.
Shopping! I love shopping - window or otherwise. That being said, it is not nearly as much fun here as it is in the States. First, they seem to assign a store employee to you as soon as you even think of coming in the door. He or she follows you around and stands over your shoulder, often not saying a thing. It took me a LONG time to get used to this, and it still gives me the creeps sometimes. The clothes are either crap or are super expensive. Think cheap H&M versus Louis Vuitton. There isn’t much in between - even for kids’ clothes. They are building out a place for the Gap in the Central part of town and I am anxious to see just how expensive the clothes will be (and if they will be the States quality of the China quality). The mark up is ridiculous! For example, paperback books run upwards of $20US here when the listed US prices is much lower. US or UK magazines are around $10US.
TMI, but what’s a girl to do? I’ll tell you - buy in the US! A 34D is pretty common there, but impossible to find in any kind of quality store here! The standard sizes are XXS, XS, S, and if it is an open-minded store, they will have a M. ??? Ugh. And I am much taller than the typical shopper here, so anything short is absolutely out of the question! I am on way too many escalators and steps to entertain anything that short. It isn’t to say that you can’t find bigger clothes here. There are stores that sell L too, it’s just that they are not the quality or style of clothes that I like. In a town where you are your style, it isn’t enough that it fits - you have to like it too!
