Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Discombobulated

Wow, my head is spinning. I've been back here in the states for a whole month now and I thought I was doing pretty well. I am no longer shocked when I go to Safeway for milk and see that they have several organic varieties, in stock ALL THE TIME, and I haven't blown through a stop sign without slowing or looking for WEEKS. But today we paid our first visit to a stateside base, other than the ill-fated trips to the ER for boil treatment, that is, and can I just say, it was freakishly weird.

The BX was at the top of the order, and first of all, it is HUGE. I was never much of a BX-goer before we moved to Osan so I don't know if it's abnormally large or not, but I almost hyperventilated. I swear, you could put the Mustang Mall at Osan in there at least ten times. I feel bad going on about it, knowing some of you are probably reading this from Osan where you can hawk a loogie from one side of the BX to the other, and I still can't stop myself. Row after row of shoes! Aisle after aisle of toys! They had stacks of Yellow Tail wine for $2.99 a bottle, and even had a pinot noir, which I had never seen before. I started frantically calculating ration points and tossing cases into my cart until I remembered that now I can buy however much hooch I can drink, or however much I can afford anyway, and that if I go back next week, it will still be there. And the week after that, and even the week after that, until infinity. Every time I went around a corner, I looked up expectantly to see who was there, and I felt strangely deflated when everyone was totally unfamiliar. The Commissary was similar, enormous and full of people I didn't know. Bizarre.

After that, we drove by the thrift store, which is open FOUR days a week and chock-full of castoff goodness. I got there twenty minutes before it closed and I barely had time to briefly inspect the previously loved wares. But did I mention it's open four days a week? I can go back tomorrow! Just in time to hit the BX for another load of wine. God bless America, my friends. And the thrift store. And cheap Australian reds.

2 comments:

Helen said...

I'm still having culture shock moments. When we first got here, we took the kids down to the PX at Ft. Lee and it was like the stress of the move melted away for them. Soooo funny. I can finally go to Target and the grocery store without having a panic attack, but that's about it. I haven't been able to successfully shop at "the mall" yet.

Janelle Davis said...

I can't wait for my head to spin in a discombobulated whirl!