In our grocery store there is a bagged salad section similar to what you would see in the US. When I am lazy and don’t feel like washing lettuce (read: every time I go to the store because I am in a season of my life that does not warrant lettuce washing except for RARE circumstances)  I head on over and grab a bag of greens.  A few months ago I discovered that they have one bag that is the salad of the month. During the Fall I was pleased to discover chopped apples in one of the bags. Since I don’t speak German I usually don’t even attempt to decipher the ingredients. I just glance in the bag and if it seems relatively normal I snag it.

Yesterday I hurried through the store on my way to get Jackson from school. I grabbed the salad of the month for May. Much to our surprise last night we had a salad with heart shaped carrots.  Somewhere in the Swiss alps there is a machine set to cut carrots into hearts for the month of May.

I can’t even imagine what the salad of the month for June will contain!!

About a month ago I was having dinner with some girl friends when my friend Haley gave me the most amazing thing. A magnet for my oven with all of the conversions of temps.

This may seem like an ordinary gift but for me it was very timely. Nearly every day I use our oven. And every day I checked my little dripped on print out that was crumpled in the kitchen drawer by the oven. You would think after living in Bogota and converting for those 2 yrs that I would have all of the important temps memorized but I don’t. It appears that I have a mental block . Something is engrained in me to rely on what I know. What I am comfortable with. And that, my friends, is Fahrenheit.

I find culture shock rears it’s head at times and in circumstances I wouldn’t expect. I think I thought in clean, fancy shmancy Switzerland that there wouldn’t be culture shock and if there was I should just buck up and accept it because who can complain living here. I agree, there are much worse places we could be. Thank you to those of you serving in places that are even farther away feeling! At the end of the day when we are away from home, we are away from home. You know that feeling you have after being on a long trip…all great places and fun people…you just want to be home. I have days like that here. We are soaking in experiences and enjoying all of the wonderful things Switzerland has to offer. But the truth is it isn’t home.

How could something so simple as converting temps for the oven be annoying?  How could I be so thrown when cilantro is not available on the one day I want to make guacamole because I am homesick for Tex Mex?  How could I feel like shrieking at the lady at the store who glares at Jackson for just being in the store with me? How could I be grumpy about cooking dinner because there isn’t any easy pick up dinner that we can afford? How could I be so anxious about driving…isn’t a car a car anywhere? Aren’t roads all the same? Those things that we know and are comfortable with just aren’t the same every where we go. It doesn’t make them wrong it just makes them different from what we know.  It brews the perfect concoction for culture shock. It comes in many different forms. Sometimes it boils over (God forbid when I am driving or in the grocery check out line with 2 toddlers), sometimes it calmly simmers, but it’s there. And unfortunately it doesn’t discriminate. It occurs anywhere that isn’t home.

So thanks, Haley, for giving me a gift that reminds me of home. And that provides a crutch for my brain that is locked into Fahrenheit and can’t seem to embrace Celsius! I am so glad that you are a friend that reminds me that is okay!!