Interlude

[raven]

In another life I would be in Edinburgh tonight, probably weaving gently down the Royal Mile after Lashings of Ginger Beer.

But it's early evening here, still hot, and, well, I'm not. I'm sitting in my apartment at the end of a very busy weekend cleaning, tidying, unpacking, sorting and looking the wrong way when crossing the street, and I have nothing to do until nine o'clock tomorrow morning.

What to even say, then? My apartment is teeny tiny, but lovely. It's a ground floor one-bedroom apartment, and I'm waiting for the catch - it's nice, quiet, and cheaper than the cheapest studio on-campus graduate place - and it has a little bedroom with a little bed and desk and a little kitchen with a teeny stovetop and a teeny living-space with a big ugly sofa. I have my postcards and pictures and calendar up, and it looks homely for all there are only eight books in it.

I'm doing okay, too. On Saturday I went food shopping. It was... a little overhelming. It was very large. It had a LOT of stuff I have never heard of. Oh, it was very large. Can I even encompass how large it was without flapping my hands about and saying "oh, it was large!" I have never thought of Cowley Road Tesco with fondness before. Anyway, so, I went to what I am told is a perfectly ordinary grocery store, and looked for things like cherry tomatoes and bread and cheese and honey and cereal and tins of soup, and it was all going, if not fine, then bearably, until I tried to buy milk. I only put milk in my coffee; otherwise I don't drink it. Even when I was de facto living with Shim, we only got through one pint a week.

...one pint. Given that I didn't want soy milk, rice milk, lactose-free milk or vitamin-D-enriched milk, or organic milk, or milk from local farms, and I wanted it to be full-fat or whole or blue milk, depending on what you call it, I couldn't find a bottle with less than six pints.

I took a very deep breath and got over it and picked up two pints of organic milk instead, and tossed it into the trolley and headed to the checkout. Where a chirpy woman chirpily said, "I think you'll find this is the ten items or less line!"

Because I am well-balanced, and not at all rattled by my new surroundings, I shrieked, "Ten items or FEWER!" and ran metaphorically into the night.

Other than that I'm doing fine. I have a sunflower in a pot on my desk and some idea of what I'm doing tomorrow, and I want to take a quiet moment to tell you all how much I adore you and am grateful for you; I wouldn't have been so sad to leave if I had had nothing to leave behind. Thank you for sending me playlists and stories and good-luck messages, thank you for putting me up on your sofas and taking me around your cities and not minding when I cry all over you; thank you for being you and wanting me to be me. If I return from this year with half the numer of new friends and experiences that I had at Oxford, then it will be more than a success.

Have some music, for a thank you.

Vienna Teng - Recessional
who are you, taking coffee no sugar? / who are you, echoing street signs?

Vienna Teng - Leaving Atlanta (cover)
well if it's any consolation / it's a lot harder to be left

Crowded House - Weather With You
Julius Caesar and the Roman empire / couldn't conquer the blue sky

Laura Marling - Goodbye England (Covered In Snow)
and I never loved England more / than when covered in snow

Richard Shindell - I Am
I am New York harbour / I am the promised land

Louder Than Words (from "tick tick... BOOM!")
why do we play with fire

Tomorrow, orientation; now, dinner.

Comments

[petra]

The people who are telling you that that is a normal US grocery store are, in large part, fibbing. People in my area talk about taking out of town visitors to the grocery store as a tourist attraction, seriously--no, there is not a great deal to see here--and of out-of-town friends relations looking forward to going back to the local hugemondo grocery store.

[raven]

I shall remember this! Truly, this is a foreign land.

[anehan]

I remember flailing when I visited a grocery store in Britain this summer. I'd never seen so much prepackaged food in my life. The mind, it boggled. I'd imagine a visitor to a Finnish grocery store would be amazed over, say, our selection of rye bread. What is this, a health food store?

[raven]

I had something of the same reaction in Copenhagen this summer. It's glad to know it's a pancultural phenomenon!

[walkertxkitty.livejournal.com]

I like the sound of your apartment, you have to post pics sometime. It sounds fairly reasonable for the location, even a good find.

I find grocery shopping intimidating. While the layouts are similar, they're not the SAME and on the rare occasions when we need higher quality ingredients or exotic ingredients, I have to go to the larger grocery in the city. It makes me cringe.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I shall, I shall. I am embarrassingly proud of the decorating job. :)

I'm glad I'm not alone. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but, eeek.

[tau_sigma]

Recessional, I love it, but I have had those lines in my head all day, Iona, all day; so melancholy and utterly lonely. Oh. (But I love it.)

Also, because you introduced me to it, and because you mentioned it in your last/last but one post, too, I have been thinking of you. I'm glad America is going well, ridiculously large vats of milk notwithstanding. (Is that all one word? It looks silly.)

Shall download music later; shall love it, as always. *hearts*

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

<3 <3 oh, you. When I was at the gig, she said of the song that it was "about some people, reaching out; I still don't know who they are". I love that: I love how they're fragments of a much larger, untold story, but it doesn't need telling, really; all we need are these echoes.

It's my favourite song, at least according to iTunes, but I can't listen to it any more at the moment. Too melancholy.

[hawkmoth.livejournal.com]

First of all, welcome to America!

I wish to apologize for the icky, sticky summer we're having here in New York (State). I hope autumn makes up for it. We will not speak of winter.

College town nonewithstanding, be sure your windows lock securely and that your front door does as well.

I'm trying to decide if you went shopping in a Wegman's, a Price Chopper or maybe...a Tops? (It's been years since I was in Ithaca.) Do not be afraid if you go inside a Wal-Mart. Well, be afraid, but don't let it get to you. You might prefer Target.

Whole milk is the way to go. 2% is okay, but you have to get used to it. Try looking in a Dunkin' Donuts or other convenience-type stores (they'll have free-standing upright coolers) for little plastic to-go type bottles of milk.

Good luck and have a great year!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I hope autumn is nice! I have heard good things, yes. I comfort myself with the thought that August really is nearly over.

It was Wegmans. It was terrifying. Tops doesn't sell wine! And Target doesn't have very much in the way of fresh food. I am apparently doing some kind of survey, I don't even know.

(thank you!)

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

*hugs*
(every time I go to a grocery store in another country I always wonder at how small it is - America really warps our perspective).

Ithaca is gorgeous and amazing and I hope you love it. Due try to check out the Saturday farmer's market - it's the best farmer's market ever.

Now that you've arrived, send me an email if you want me to put you in touch with my friends who live there.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Heh! I shall always feel oddly content in British supermarkets from now on, which is I suppose some kind of bizarre upside. I am absolutely going to check out the farmers' market! Everyone's been telling me how great it is.

(Email on the way!)

[burnmybridges.livejournal.com]

Your adventure buying milk sounds a bit like my mum's adventure buying tea bags in a tiny grocery store when we visited New York in 2004. I think the shop staff thought we were insane, tea obsessed English ladies as she fussed so much over getting the right brand. They were pointing and laughing at us as we left. :P

Nice to see someone else appreciating Laura Marling! She is one of my favourites at the moment and Goodbye England (Covered In Snow) is one of my favourite tracks by her. I've got both her albums and really hope it won't be a long wait for the next one.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Tea, tea, don't get me started about tea. I drink a lot of Twinings fruit tea, which the check-in people made me remove from my suitcase! Woe, etc.

Laura Marling is marvellous. A friend recommended her to me a couple of years ago and I've been a fan ever since; I think I like the first album a tiny bit better, but they're both fab.

[vikingwriter.livejournal.com]

Those first days in a new place are always my favorite and the scariest. (Yes, I'm that weird.)

As for groceries, I'm American and I sometimes get overwhelmed in the store. Too many choices. (And I always go to the same couple of stores because I know where everything is and can get in and out in minimum time.) I second the recommendation to get your small amount of whole milk at a 7-11 or the like (just nothing else because it's generally hugely overpriced).

As for the names in your address book when you head back to the UK, I'm sure you'll have quite a list and not a few memories to go with it.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip. I have to say I am not enjoying these first few days! I do hope things get better soon, and of course I'm sure it will, just.

[leiascully.livejournal.com]

We don't sell things in pints here! We drink more than that in our morning coffee!

/exaggerating (but only slightly)

I am glad you are settling in well. Hooray! You are brave!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*sniff* I doooooon't feel brave. But I shall persevere, yes.

[harriet-spy.livejournal.com]

vitamin-D-enriched milk

Virtually all non-organic US milk is Vitamin D-enriched. It makes no difference in taste/preparation. Unless you have some particular medical reason to avoid D, you can simplify your life by accepting that kind.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

It's not that I have some particular thing against it, it's just I am used to milk that comes in bottles labelled "Tesco whole milk" with a blue cap. Labels that shriek so much information at me - vitamin D! organic! locally produced! etc - were part of my whole I-am-totally-overwhelmed experience.

I am leaving this home

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

Vienna Teng's cover of "Leaving Atlanta" was the only song I listened to for the whole week before I left San Francisco, no joke. And I haven't listened to it since, because I don't want to cry like that.

I am so, so pleased you're living IN MY COUNTRY. I will beat up any and all Americans who aren't pleasant to you.

Also, don't feel bad, New York chain grocery stores make no sense whatsoever. Give me Safeway, Giant, or Kroger any day. (That said, my favorite chain grocery store name is Piggly Wiggly, which is mostly in the South.) Do they have a Trader Joe's in Ithaca? Go to TJ's and forget the rest.

Do not go to Walmart EVER FOR ANYTHING, Walmart is socially evil. Do Kmart or Target (or, of course, IKEA) for your home furnishing needs. Do CVS, Rite Aid, or Walgreens for toiletries and everyday non-grocery shopping.

...thus ends your Cheap Shopping in America lesson for the day. Sorry. I have major retail loyalty, apparently.

Re: I am leaving this home

[petronelle.livejournal.com]

Trader Joe's is going to have a heck of a time displacing Wegmans if they ever try it.

Target is also socially evil, alas, as is CVS, and IKEA is far away (Toronto or, I think, NYC).

[the-acrobat.livejournal.com]

I love going to grocery stores in other countries! It's so much fun to see what's the same and what's different.

vitamin-D-enriched milk, or organic milk, or milk from local farms I suspect that if I were in the US, I'd be all tinfoil-helmety and buy organic; there's no requirement even to label for the bovine growth hormone that is banned in the EU and Canada among other places in the US.

If you can't find Twinings fruit teas in the US (I have no idea what you can find there!) I can most likely bring you some at Angels in America time; they're everyday things up here.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I'm beginning to suspect that the answer to my problems is to take up drinking black coffee. It would make life easier! And maybe wait until I'm a bit less rattled before I go shopping again, because intellectually I entirely know what you mean about going to look for food in other places!

Thank you, my dear. I will investigate if they really aren't available or if it's just that I haven't found them yet, and if the former I might put in an order, thank you. :)

[ladyfalcon.livejournal.com]

I had the opposite milk-problem in Europe - I drink whatever milk is available
and am frankly suspicious that anyone can tell differences between percents, but I drink a lot of it, and lived with 3 other people who did the same. And in Prague they don't sell it in quantities over a half-gallon. At one point we were going through six of these a week. It became a bit of a problem.

That being said American grocery stores are insane and overwhelming. I had a much easier time finding things to eat when the stores were smaller (although the time when all stores in Prague simultaneously stopped selling pre-made fried chicken for sandwiches nearly killed me).

I hope all else goes well with your American adventure. If you need information, there are tons of us here to give it. And if you need any other help, like kneecaps broken if any of our fellow Americans get rude, well, some of us live close enough to provide that service as well.

Erin

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

My dear friend jacinthsong advised "rent a cow". I'm becoming more and more convinced of the truth of this. And, you know, I am honestly comforted and touched by the thought of people breaking kneecaps for me.

(You are pretty close, right? Remind me where.)

[littlered2.livejournal.com]

Only taking 8 books is impressive! I know that for a year in America there's a big limit to how much you can pack, and there are bookshops and libraries there, but I would still find it so hard to choose only a few to take. I worry that this would seriously put me off ever moving abroad even if all other factors were perfect.

I'm glad your apartment is nice - hope you have a great time living there! And that US supermarkets get less overwhelming.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I have so little time to read, I'm actually not noticing it just yet! The place doesn't look quite right without them, so I'm kind of circumventing the problem with postcards and photographs. It'll do for now, and Shim is sending a box full of books soon.

Thank you! I should post pictures of the apartment when I get a chance.

[bookwormsarah.livejournal.com]

I love shopping for food in strange places, but I do find North American food stores baffling. I spent two months working in Vancouver and my first night there I decided to investigate the local supermarket. I partially blame things on having been awake for almost thirty hours, but I was unable to find cheese smaller than a house brick and the aisle layouts confused me - breakfast cereal at one end and washing powder at the other? I left with ginger ale and pop tarts... On my next visit I found the deli counter tucked away at the back, and was able to buy human-sized non-plastic cheese portions. I wanted a pastry but couldn't find a tray of less than twenty...

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

This is starting to sound eerily familiar. Thankfully the law school are feeding me a lot this week!

[rosariotijeras.livejournal.com]

I can't believe I missed your move while I was out of town doing not internet things! I'm so glad it's all going mostly-well.

Also, as a former grocery professional I can tell you that ten items or fewer lines are bullshit.

Good luck with orientation you accented person you!

[oddcellist.livejournal.com]

Oh, I was away and missed your arrival, but good luck over here, and I hope that prickliness of the first few days in a new place eases off for you soon. If you want I have a friend there who is a 2L this year, but perhaps you've enough to do in the upcoming days with orientation & associated jazz?

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

Because I am well-balanced, and not at all rattled by my new surroundings, I shrieked, "Ten items or FEWER!" and ran metaphorically into the night.

Adorable!