I believe nearly everyone in expatia has their own “must-have” - something that seems illogical to bring from home or abroad to which you nevertheless dedicate precious luggage weight. For Maggie this is cooking ware and pet supplies. For me (or rather my friends and family visiting me) it is mostly peanut butter and Cracklin’ Oat Bran. Jen, a friend of mine from Istanbul, wrote quite an entertaining post about this in her blog here, which is a good argument not to move to Turkey if you find pork, palatable wine or European cheese necessary ingredients to your happiness.
Settling into my new flat has me thinking quite a bit about this, because I keep finding items brought from abroad by the six years of Americans who have lived in this same flat before me. It started in the kitchen cupboard, but there is evidence stashed away in the bathroom, wardrobe and dresser drawers. I have moved to a little slice of expatia!
Among my finds:
Duct tape (actually Gorilla Tape, of which I had previously never heard), three bags of Ricola cough drops (various fruit flavors), a 680g container of McCormick Taco Seasoning Mix Premium (expired May of this year), Energizer batteries, a ten bottle collection of Encore Herbs and Spices (made in Canada), a L’Occitane Travel Candle (lemon scented), a Sony Discman with a copied Nickleback album (!), a pocket New Testament, The Very Best of Elvis Costello (book for Piano/Vocal/Guitar), a three-pack of Trader Joe’s scouring pads, tiny Christmas lights (red) and Cooking Basics of Dummies. Two Washington D.C. postcards near the bookshelf.
And the biggest prize of all - non-metric measuring cups, lined up lovingly along the wall. One cup! ½ cup! ¼ cup! 1/8 cup!
Then there are the items I am almost sure were purchased locally by my fellow countrymen. The French press - yes of course Ukrainians drink coffee as well, but call it a feeling. The giant coffee mugs. The smaller, more expensive salt with iodine that you can poor right out of the container. Non-sugar sweetener.
Finding these things gives me such a nice feeling, something nostalgic, or romantic…I’m not sure how to describe it, but I’d bet the Germans have a cute compound word for it. Not just finding little pieces of America, but finding the little pieces that others have put together. Something like: The Best of American Consumerism [Abridged Pocket Version].
Austin, if you are reading this and any of these things are yours, please do not think I am mocking you. On the contrary, let me share my list of ridiculous “must-have” items to which I devoted precious space in my luggage: 10 pound yoga mat. Carbon monoxide detector. A collection of McCormick spices (albeit not Taco Seasoning Premium). Memory foam pillow. Calcium supplements. Peanut butter.
So here’s to carrying on the American legacy on Turgeneva Street, with enough spices for a few curries, and then some.
4 comments:
Hooray for non-metric measuring cups, giant coffee mugs, and curry spices!
Sure, some of the things we miss for practical reasons, but I think others are somehow touchstones for the lives we left behind... and, at the same time (for me at least), a kind of show of dedication to making a new, non-temporary life somewhere else.
When I was abroad in Germany, just for a summer, the thing I missed most is that which I could not pack - Taco Bell.
Tell me I'm not an American.
calphalon cookware is not a luxury, it's a necessity!!!
Ha! It was so funny finally stumbling across your blog and seeing pictures of all this stuff! Alright, let me shed some light on these items:
Gorilla Tape - My parents sent me a couple of big packages of stuff while I was there, and in one of them I had asked them to send a roll of duct tape for various home repairs and such. They sent me that stuff instead and I barely used any.
Cough Drops - From one of their packages. They were worried about me catching a cold in the winter!
Taco Seasoning - It was there when I moved in. I believe this guy named Scott had it brought to him. He was a Peace Corp volunteer who lived there two people before me (and he's as far backs as I'm aware of the legacy of Americans living in that apartment). I might have used it once or twice.
Batteries - Must have been Scott's too.
Herbs and Spices - Also Scott's, I'm pretty sure. Most of the stuff in that cupboard above the sink was his, with a few things coming from Maria after him, and I think just some dried basil from me.
Candle - Maria's?
Discman and Nickleback - Definitely not mine, and definitely not Maria's, so I'm assuming Scott's. I got a kick out of that one myself.
Bible - Scott's?
Elvis Costello book - When I bought a guitar from a Peace Corp Volunteer who was leaving Simferopol last fall, she also had some books to get rid of, so I took that one for the hell of it. I'm an Elvis Costello fan and all, but turns out not a big enough one to ever use the book or bother taking it with me, obviously. Side note: the volunteer's name is Alison, named after the Elvis Costello song.
Scouring pads - Parents' idea, from one of their packages.
Christmas lights - I actually bought those there (well, in Feodosia), because when I moved in the light in the foyer/hallway was out and I wanted to make it a bit brighter in there, so stringable lights seemed like a good idea. Sergey, being the wonderful and attentive landlord that he is, eventually had the light fixed, so I took the christmas lights down (is that ladder still behind the door in the living room? He had to borrow that from someone to get the light fixed and was going to return it at some point. I had been using it to hang wet clothes on).
Cooking for Dummies and the other cookbook - I had been inspired by an expat I had met in Moldova to try to learn to cook better while I was abroad, so I had my parents send some books about cooking. Actually, I think they came from my grandparents. Either way, I didn't get much use out of them.
DC Postcards - I think they were sent to Scott by his local counterpart Gulya (whom I know and might have even given you a number for) while she was in the U.S.
Measuring Cups - I think from Scott. They were quite handy indeed.
French Press - Not sure who bought it, but I'm sure it didn't belong to Sergey's mother, so it must have been one of the Americans.
Mugs, Salt, Sweetener - No idea. I contributed a few of the dishes, glasses, some of the silverware, one of the frying pans, and the small white pot. I bought those things for my first apartment in Simferopol, which had no dishes or utensils or anything, and I brought them all with me when I moved into the Turgenev place, not realizing it already had plenty of those things.
That other book, "The Areas of My Expertise," I took from that same guy in Moldova, who was about to go back home and was trying to get rid of stuff.
I think there's plenty more weird stuff to be found around there. For example, I'm pretty sure I left the christmas gift that my friend sent me sitting on top of the cupboard with all the dishes: soap on a rope, shaped like a bunny rabbit. Maybe you haven't found it yet since it's so high up! By the way, don't be afraid to poke around the wardrobe, drawers, and massive pile in the bedroom to find all kinds of bizarre Soviet and post-Soviet goodies belonging to Sergey's family. There's some pretty interesting stuff lying around. You get a billion points if you find the inappropriate Serbian piggy bank!
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