Different, but not really....

It is hard to believe that we have been here just over one week. Sometimes I feel like we are just vacationing and visiting a new town and other times I am consciously thinking that this is our new home and this is our new grocery store and I need to remember where things are. I hate that feeling of learning a new grocery store and learning where everything is especially when you don’t even know what items transfer.

Tanner and I picked up what looked like hamburger meat for tacos but then looked again and realized we had put minced lamb in our shopping cart. Tanner said there is no way he will eat a sheep. So we put it back and found minced beef instead.

I found a pre-made mix for pancakes. It seemed the same as our pancake mixes at home. You just add egg and water, fry in a pan and there you go. I have since learned that pancakes taste more like Yorkshire pudding. I had tasted Yorkshire pudding over 10 years ago at Andrew’s grandmother’s home. They are delicious but they have a distinct taste. Yorkshire pudding is very good as a side dish with beef and vegetables but not what I was looking for in pancakes. I had to ask one of the sales clerks where the syrup was in the store. I had looked in the breakfast isle and other places that seemed reasonable. The lady led me to the baking isle where the flour was sitting on the shelf. It was a good thing that she was there to point it out because I was looking right at it and did not recognize it. When I think of syrup, I think of a large tall clear plastic container so you can see the dark color of maple in the bottle. This was a small can the size of a can of green beans only a little fatter and shorter. The lid was just like a paint can that has to be pried off with a screwdriver and hammered back on when finished. I took the small can and wondered what the syrup looked like since the container was opaque. The syrup was golden (not brown but almost yellow) so thick and viscous that it sat in a blob on our plates for a few seconds before it changed its shape, similar to how toothpaste or silly putty might run on a plate. The syrup was so rich and thick that it only took a few drops to consume the pancakes. The boys tasted, gasped and almost spit it out. It was not the best baking experience so far; maybe because we have such high expectations with our Bisquick pancake mix and our Aunt Jamima Maple Syrup. I’ll have to work on this one.

Sometimes I feel like I am in just another American city. The mall has some of the same advertisements at least for movies I have watched. Some of the names of the stores are the same and of course there is Starbucks. Even in the stores I don’t know there are products that I know and have heard. But then all of a sudden I hear someone speak with their thick British accent and I realize that we are living in a different country. I usually understand what most people are saying but sometimes I get confused.


Tanner was invited to go to a camp with the church youth group. I was reading the list of things that he should bring. First I took a mental note when I read sun cream. We would say sunscreen but it made since - sun cream. So I thought to myself, “when someone says sun cream now I will know what they mean.” I was feeling proud of myself. The next thing on the list said, “you can bring willies if you like.” I had not heard of willies but seeing that it was listed right after sun cream, I assumed it meant swimming suit. It seemed like a good deduction.

Later that day we were visiting with a family we had met at the church. We were talking about how much it rains in England. We were commenting on the perfect sunny day and the beauty of summer. I admitted that we may not have the kind of clothes necessary for England – like boots. She said, “Don’t you have wiliies?” I must have given myself away with my furrowed brows and questioning look. “You know boots that come up to your knees for the rain? Willies? What would you call them? Galoshes?” I started laughing. “Willies? I thought that meant swimming suit. I just read that word today.” When I explained why I thought it meant swimming suit, they laughed too.

The other day I was setting up a bank account. The lady explained a few things but I wanted to clarify. I said, “ So you are saying that the card will come to me in the mail.” She said, “Yes, it will come in the post.” I realized she had corrected me without saying it in the same way that you might correct a three year old that says something wrong. You would just repeat the statement to the three year old using the proper way of saying it. “Mental note to self: They say post not mail.”

The differences are there but for the most part we are all the same. It is true wherever I go. People are people. I can see that this will be an opportunity for our family to love someone new, to cry and laugh with new friends. It will be a time to live life with new friends we have not even met. Yet all the time, we remember and think about our old friends who are not old but just have longer history with the Syed, Paquin, Earhart family. The funny thing is that these new friends will only know the Syed’s while others in our history more easily call us Paquin’s while my family may still think of me as an Earhart. Yet we are still just us – Andrew, Melia, Tanner and Konner