I Feel Stupid

Yeah, I really do. Last night a student told my wife about a store in town that supposedly had a great selection of bulk item and imported goods. “Imported goods” was one of the first phrases we learned when we got to China. The Chinese and American cuisine are about as far apart as the language or culture, and we had been stunned upon arrival by how much of what we were accustomed to was unavailable in our city. So, after investigating every store near our house, we got an idea of what was available and adjusted our lifestyle considerably. Big change. Sometimes our families and friends would send us a box with some of the things we can’t get here – which we used sparingly, as it cost so much to get here.

So we went to this place late last night. And the place has the largest selection of imported goods we’d ever seen. Things we’d largely gone without – cheese, bacon, ham, maple syrup, chocolate syrup, salsa, tortillas, whipped cream, cream cheese to name a few – were all on the shelves. Most I’ve spent on groceries since we’ve been here, but our daily lives just got a lot easier. So, yeah, I feel pretty dumb for living without this stuff for a year and a half when it’s all been right down the road.

The moral of the story: never stop investigating the boundaries of the possible. (I know, pretty inspirational for a story about cheese) Sure, there’s a fence somewhere that divides it from the impossible, but don’t believe it until you’ve run into it a couple times. Shows how little we really know. Makes you wonder… what else am I wrong about here in my city? Or in China? What other assumptions do I have that are making life harder because I’ve never explored the edges?