1. Friendly glances on the street are very rare. We thought this was particular to Eastern Europe. We miss the pleasantness of a smile when you pass a stranger.
2. That we love bike rides as a family. South Whittier is not conducive to pleasant bike rides, while our small town surrounded by farmland is very conducive. We plan on bringing this new love home with us and try to overcome the obstacles of South Whittier to continue our family bike rides.
3. The grocery stores are stocked with gluten-free and dairy-free products. It puts the United States grocery stores to shame. I have been thinking of packing an extra suitcase with Daryl’s favorite GF bread! (just kidding… we don’t have a big enough freezer for it at home)
4. Blackberries ripening in late July and early August were a surprise to us and to all of the locals. I made 4 pies in one week!
5. How Daryl’s health has been relatively good.
6. How much we would miss our community even though we were only away for the summer.
7. How you really can get by with less kitchen gadgets (ok I do miss my food processer, my sharp chef’s knife, and my digital scale to name a few!)
8. That your kids can get by with less toys! I know this is a no brainer… but they simply don’t need too much. We have had a lot of fun making our own “paperdolls” (ie. They draw pictures and then cut them out.) We borrow lots of books from the library. And we play a lot of pretend. Today they excitedly invited me up to their room to visit “Disneyland” I had to pay a 2 pence entrance fee (they said it could be anything up to a pound… what a deal!) and then they gave me a grand tour of the park. Play area on the bottom bunk with castle toys (Sleeping Beauty’s castle maybe?) Natania had a food shop at the back of the room with real fruit and veggies nicked from the kitchen. There was even a resting area with nice pillows and blankets after you were tired from playing in the park. Seeing this Disneyland you might think my girls had never been to the real thing the similarities were so slim, but Daryl and I told them we like their Disneyland better because in theirs you got to use your imagination, while Disneyland does it all for you.
9. How different our English is. We may speak the same language but sometimes it doesn’t feel that way!
10. That Daryl likes milk chocolate! Yes, usually he avoids dairy, but the big Cadburys Milk chocolate and hazelnut bars doesn’t seem to bother him! I guess I didn’t realize that his strong remarks in the past about how chocolate was like eating batteries, was actually only about Dark chocolate!
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