What Went Right
Welcome to my random musings about the world, on a weekly-to-occasional basis.
Where we are: We’re in Mexico City, doing all the things (let’s be honest: eating all the meals) we canceled when we fled to Japan in March of 2020. Tacos for everyone!
What Went Right
Lee and I have a running conversation in which we compare places we’ve been. A certain type of architecture reminds us of Miami or Beirut. A particular shape of grassy knoll is just like the topography of Ireland or Norway. There are foods, smells, behavior patterns, highway personalities—everything you can think of. We are constantly reminded of something else we’ve seen, somewhere else we’ve been.
Our need to compare-and-contrast is probably simplistic or reductionist, but we all work with the tools we’ve got. ‘XYZ reminds me of ABC’—that’s about as sophisticated as my thinking gets.
It serves a purpose, though. I know I’ve said this before, but we all need hooks: ways to organize incoming information so that we can make sense of it. In the early days of our travel, every experience was new—we felt like the world was the proverbial firehose blasting us with input and information. Nowadays, we have a frame of reference for most things, which frees up some mental space. I can categorize an experience and think about it a little more—why does the architecture of Beirut remind me of Miami? What might those two cities, or their inhabitants, have in common?
All of that is to say that our compare-and-contrast tendencies were on full display while we were in Raleigh, and it took the whole two weeks for us to realize we were actually being kind of obnoxious. To anyone we offended with our ranting about road rage and empty shelves and lack of table-clearing at Starbucks: I apologize. We weren’t trying to be critical. We were just trying to make sense of a place that we thought we understood. It turns out we don’t—much has changed in our 7.5 years away.
To make up for our criticisms (I promise we were only trying to understand), I give you a list: Some Things I Miss When We’re Away.
—Functional hotel bathrooms. This is the most important thing on the list. Words cannot express the pleasure I get from a frictionless bathroom that makes sense. I treasure mixer taps that are infinitely adjustable, an outlet next to the sink so I can dry my hair in front of the mirror, toilets that flush everything down and can handle toilet paper, drains that actually drain and don’t smell like sewage. America has fantastically functional bathrooms, even in budget hotels. We stayed in a budget hotel in Ethiopia once, and—well, I can’t even describe the non-functionality of that bathroom.
See? There I go again—comparing.
—Food sanitation. I know there’s an occasional outbreak of food poisoning in the US that makes the news, but the fact that those events make the news is the exception that proves the rule. For the most part, the food sanitation system works, and that’s a real treat. When we’re in the US, we can eat anywhere and not think twice about it—food trucks, gas stations, country diners, even grocery store sushi. You don’t realize what a treat that kind of reliability is until you’re hanging over the toilet for the third time in a month. I love eating in the US, in part because it never makes me wonder if I’m going to get an intestinal parasite.
—Smiling faces. That may be a southern thing, or maybe it’s somehow linked to my familiarity with the place (and the language, obviously), but it’s definitely not my imagination. Americans are known around the world for smiling (we are the butt of jokes in many parts of the world, for this reason). But as an American myself, I find smiles incredibly comforting and just right. I like to smile. Smiling makes me feel happy, and I like to think my smile makes the world an infinitesimally better place.
—I can read the signs, and understand the chatter around me. This one’s a mixed bag—sometimes it’s nice to just tune everything out—but being able to read the signs in the hospital, or understand the instructions on the parking machine, or figure out which jug is laundry soap and which is softener makes the minutiae of everyday life a lot easier.
—Restaurant service. The US is the only country I know of where you don’t have to work to get a drink refill, or get your bill. We could definitely see the pandemic-induced cracks in the service industry last week, but the systems haven’t changed. Over the years we’ve gotten used to having to flag someone down for every step of a meal, and I don’t mind, but I have to admit that my normal impatience took a break for a couple of weeks, and that was nice.
—Tap water! I love being able to drink the tap water, and not having even a twinge of worry about it.
—Washcloths. Hotels in the US can be counted on to have washcloths. I love washcloths.
—I pumped gas all by myself, three times. Yes, I’m a grown-ass adult. Yes, I drove a car almost every day for more than 30 years. But pulling up to a gas station and just knowing how it works, without having to park in a corner and observe for a few minutes to figure it out? That made me feel totally competent.
—Super-easy mail order. I can get anything delivered, and when I had to return something to Amazon, I just walked into Whole Foods, scanned a QR code, and handed the items to the very nice person behind the counter. I know y’all are used to that level of easy, but I’m not. It felt like magic.
—Orderly airplane behavior. Again, I know the exceptions make the news, but our flight this week from Raleigh to Atlanta was stunningly orderly. No one jumped up as soon as the wheels touched down to drag their luggage into the aisle. No one took off their seatbelt until we taxied to a stop. Each row stood up and exited only when the row in front of them had cleared. We were both a little gobsmacked—we only ever see airplane passengers behave that efficiently in Germany.
See? There I go again. I can’t help comparing. And you know what? America, like every other country I’ve been to, compares poorly in some ways, and favorably in others.
Okay I’ll stop now.
Take care,
Lisa
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