So we’ve been back in Canada for three weeks now – the first time our family has been here in 3 years. And like last time we were here, there always seem to be things that catch us off guard.
NOTE: I hesitated to post this, as I realize it can easily be taken as a kind of passive-aggressive boasting. In the vein of “oh, our kids don’t know what a Happy Meal is…” So just know that it comes from a place of us chuckling at how out of place our kids can appear, even to us. That’s it.
Things which shock & /or surprise
- “Wait, so you can drink the water from any tap? Even the hose outside? wait…what? Even the hose outside?”
- “does anyone else drink shower water – not because you’re thirsty, but just because you can?” -Matea
- “Oops…forgot about supper” .. as the sun is still up at 8:30
- ‘Woah…were these carrots dipped in sugar or something…they’re so sweet”
- the size of pickup trucks which seem to be used for transporting one or two humans around the city
- me: “Oh man… I totally forgot about voicemail…” (my 16-year-old reading this over my shoulder: “wait, for real, what IS voicemail?)
- the sense that you can just…use the internet. Streaming a video does not take away from someone else’s ability to load a web page. There is no sense of “how many other people are likely using the internet right now”…you just use it. (when we moved to Kibuye, our entire team had a 30GB download cap…per month, for all of us combined. Which we consumed in small chunks over a speed of 512kbps (1/2MB) satellite hook up. So having an unlimited cable with 30GBps (30,000MB) for less than 1/3 of our family’s portion of that satellite feed is pretty strange)
Things never seen before – mostly from the eyes of an 8-year old:
- dishwasher (which ‘someone’ is scared of “because of the huge blade that spins at the bottom of it”)
- street sweeper
- shreddies
- blueberries? wait..they’re grapes? not grapes…weird…then what are they?