Sarah Jane Humke

Here is my shopping list for the US so far*:

Kool-Aid Believe it or not they don’t sell this paragon of sugary virtue here at all.  However, I don’t want it to drink, I want it to dye with as apparently it makes an excellent wool acid dye that doesn’t smell bad and it pretty non-toxic.  It is also something that is good to trade with other fiber freaks (sort of like smokes in the “big house”, ya know?).

Fritos They don’t have Fritos here.  This makes it rather difficult to have the chili-with-cheese-and-sour-cream-eaten-with-Fritos meal.

Jeans Everything is sized so differently here.  I swear, given the sizing of the jeans, no one has an ass here.  They are just sitting on the back of their legs.

Orchid Basket I need this for one of the orchids that they have.  I guess maybe I just got used to being in Florida where these are sold at Home Depot.  Then again, orchids grow like weeds in the trees there too….

Beads, Buttons and Fabric  JoAnn’s, here I come!!!!

IKEA Cat Scratchers I guess that cats here don’t scratch, much like they don’t pee or poop either as evidenced by the lack of clumping cat litter.

Underwear See “Jeans” above.

Yarn/Fiber Duh.  I’m going to Rhinebeck dudes.

Lysol  I guess that they don’t have germs here either.

Charmin On-The-Go  This is a little roll of Charmin that has a hard plastic case.  It’s great for traveling.  I carried on of these in my purse for a year and it saved my ass many times!  Alas, the version that they sell here has a plastic bag type of covering for it and I fear that when the roll gets a little smaller it will be less sturdy and in need of the protection.

Plastic Baggies  The baggie culture here isn’t nearly as sophisticated as in the US.

Pepto-Bismol  This stuff costs a small treasury here.  Seriously, it is mucho expensivo.  For what folks living in the States (I’ve become more sensitive to saying “Americans” since I got here.  I mean, there are lots and lots of Americans and only some of them come from the US) would consider a “travel sized” bottle you pay something like $20.  Dude, this is on the list for Costco!!!!

A Cheap DVD Player  Our US DVD player bit the dust a few weeks after we got here.  So we got one that would play UK DVDs (yes, they are different, doesn’t that suck on so many levels???) and Tech Support thought that he would be able to break  I mean hack it so that it would play all the different DVDs no problem.  Alas and alack, it has proven more difficult than that and I have not been able to watch any of my favorite DVDs except on my computer.  Doh, suck.

Black Beans  There is also not a whole lot of Mexican cooking here.  Go figure.

 

I know this sounds like a hell of a shopping list, but I have 2 large suitcases that are going to be filled mostly with things that are not coming back with me.  I’ll give you a hint, there are 2 afghans, a throw blanket, 4 small travel pillows and a passel of large books that aren’t coming back with me.  I’m not taking a lot of clothes with me (see “jeans” and “underwear” above) as it is obvious by the length of this trip that I am going to need to hunt down a laundromat at some point in the trip.

*List is subject to change.  Change may occur because the writer saw something that she did not think of in the UK or merely because it was “way cool” or “so fraking cheap!”