First of all - kudos to me. Two weeks in a row keeping up with my journaling. One more data point and we can call this a trend.
Starting to get a handle on the things that feel new - driving, food, my skin made supple by 90% humidity. There's several things that are rising to the top as improvements to life in the US. Think I'll write about a couple of those today.
Have to start with food. When it comes to groceries and grocery stores, its quite a melting pot. Besides the obvious Asian influence, lots of European brands that are new to me, and an Arabic influence as well. Way more efficient here on the loose produce - you bring your mangos, onions, etc to an employee stationed in the produce area who bags and tags your stuff with a barcode so that the checkout doesn't get hung up by looking up what the code is for okra. Also, the pork section is in its own walled room to keep the place Halal, you select and purchase all in the room.
There's no shortage of new snacks to try. I submit exhibit A - the oat snickers.
I'm a fan, not because its an excellent candy bar, or even the best kind of snickers (that honor belongs to the peanut butter variety). Its great because of its versatility. Upon first bite, it seems like a regular snickers you've had before...after a couple of chews the normal snickers components melt away...and you're left with...a mouthful of oatmeal. I.E breakfast. Snickers-flavored breakfast. It's genius.
More broadly, delicious food abounds here. When we're feeling lazy we'll have fantastic noodles and rice dishes delivered to our apartment. For around $4 total for the two of us. Including delivery. I ordered extra today because I wanted some leftovers. Food in this pic was $10. And tips aren't a thing here.
Yesterday we were feeling like a little western food, and had heard that KFC was really good here. I honestly couldn't tell you the last time I had KFC back home, but we gave it a shot. It was fine, our assessment was the expat that recommended was really missing home and we just haven't hit that yet. One notable thing tho was the cole slaw. It was ice cold, nearly frozen - which to be fair is way better than suspiciously warm slaw. Consistent with the theme, the ice slaw was served with a gelato-sized mini-spoon. On second thought, not sure how this made it into the section of things that are better. Seems to have drafted off of the food section ramblings.
For one last food ramble I submit the adorable dim sum delivery robot who brought my lunch. No further explanation required, just enjoy his cheerful whistling song and adorable bird face
Also better - gasoline. Government controls the price here (imagine, a government that isn't at the mercy of the petroleum interests!!) After two weeks, today for the first time I filled the tank in my Toyota Fortuner (not a typo, its most similar to a Highlander back home) - empty to full - $25. Could get used to that.
To keep things honest, I offer the following two items that are not necessarily better.
Laundry. Our temp apartment has an all-in-one washer/dryer. Which sounds super convenient except it holds about 4 socks and a shirt for each cycle. And the drying part of things is really more of a bake. Nothing moving, just the soaking wet clothes turning into hot wet clothes. So we're doing more of this now:
Because it doesn't seem right to end on that note, I offer one thing that's better. Or at least better than a dead snake. Lots of places have beautiful sunrises, including Oregon. I just didn't have this view from my living room.
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