Friday, January 8, 2010

Well, we must be settling in because yesterday Bill was mistaken for an Aussie, and that was AFTER the woman heard him talking. When I went back to pick up a prescription at the "chemist" (pharmacy) the clerk asked me if I had my medicare card, and I explained that we only have private insurance, since we're not from here. Bill had been with me the previous night when I dropped off the prescription, and he'd been talking with her about dosages and how the pills were compounded. When I told her we weren't from here she said, "Oh, I thought the man who was with you last night was Australian." Bill,? with an Aussie accent? But then again, a few days earlier we were both asked if we were from here, but that was by a waitress who admitted that she wasn't from here either, she was from France, so I guess everybody probably sounds strange to her.

We were at the food court near Bill's office yesterday and as we were walking around, deciding what to order, we saw a Mexican booth. When we stopped to read the menu we couldn't help laughing, since they had authentic Mexican food like "Mexican Schnitzel" and "Mexican Spud" a baked potato with sour cream and salsa on top. And I have given up trying to find Ortega diced green chilies in the stores, but today I bought some fresh green chilies at the Chinese market. Hopefully they're the same thing but I'll have to experiment using them in making chicken enchiladas.

I'm amazed at the things I didn't bring over here that I thought I'd sent, or at least should have, like my salad spinner, the knife block, my sewing basket, just to name a few. But then, I did send along some really useful things like instruction books for machines we no longer even own like printers, computers, fax machines etc.

At dinner with some friends the other night, we were asked what we missed most about the US, and when put on the spot nothing really came to mind immediately. In thinking about it later however, I would have to say I miss iced tea, it's very hard to find in restaurants, and although you can buy it in bottles from the coolers in the more casual restaurants, it's always full of sugar. And anyone that knows Bill is aware of how much diet Dr. Pepper he drinks, but not here, since it's very hard to find and ridiculously expensive, at $2.29 for a 10 ounce can.