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.

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

[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.

[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*

[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!

[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.

[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.

[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]

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.

[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.

[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!)

[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!)

[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]

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.

[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.

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.

[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]

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.

[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. :)

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).

Re: I am leaving this home

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

What is up with New Yorkers and Wegmans? It's kinda creepy. *g*

Target is socially evil? Oh god, this makes me extremely sad. Luckily I haven't gone to CVS in aaages, since San Francisco was dominated by Walgreens. (SF also didn't have an IKEA, which defies logic; you had to go to the East Bay.)

Re: I am leaving this home

[petronelle.livejournal.com]

One of my friends keeps trying to talk me into working there, as if shopping there is insufficient adulation. And I think part of the reason is that we don't have a lot of things to be proud of (Ithaca notwithstanding!) so we take joy in what we can find.

Target's CEO has recently donated a heap of money to some homophobe's campaign fund, cheating the rules via the "corporations are people" loopholes.

Re: I am leaving this home

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

...well, fuck, there goes my Target patronage.

At least I've already got all the furnishings for my apartment.