the land where everything is big

okay, my culture shock is subsiding and i am now remembering the glories of being in the states. our first day here we went to wal mart...because that's what you do. seriously, we only brought enough diapers and formula for the flight, because we thought we'd buy them here (along with some toiletries for ourselves) rather than lugging them across the ocean. yes, we are quite smart. so while still reeling from jet lag, and leaving my daughter with someone other than her father while i was gone for the first time (okay, it was with 3 grandparents...but still... you parents are with me), i found myself parking a quarter mile away from the entrance and walking smack dab into consumer mecca...super wal mart. we immediately saw someone we knew...also part of the wal mart experience here in oklahoma. i couldn't help look around me and take it in. i went looking for vitamins first. on the vitamin aisle i faced an insurmountable, unintelligible wall of vitamins ...floor to ceiling...the whole aisle. i know we all have individual health needs, but really? ... a wall of vitamins? i had to ask for help. then i had to ask where the face soap section was, not by the body soap...because they each need their own aisle! the directions went something like this, "walk a quarter mile down this big aisle, take a right at cosmetics, you'll go through two stop lights, past the garth brooks photo over head, two intersections past the grocery store and it's on your left." once i got there, i found some anti-wrinkle, co-enzyme Q10, alpha and beta hydroxy super soap (yes, that's what it's come to), but couldn't find glycerine soap. i gave up. give me a break, how long am i going to spend shopping for soap? i finally found tim in electronics (kill me), where i was immediately bombarded with explanations i will never understand let alone remember about cell phone costs, pre-pay plans, blah, blah, blah. next to the baby section for diapers and formula, each their own aisle and wall of stuff. we finally asked a woman what she used, picked up a can and got out.

how americans can still be overweight when walking around super wal mart is so fundamental to our culture is beyond me.

we stopped at taco bueno on our way home to pick up lunch for us and the grandparents. i ordered a medium fanta fruit punch along with my burrito as a way of clinging to some london culture, in the midst of my assimilation process. the medium was bigger than any large i could get in london. it was so big, i thought they had given me the wrong size, so we asked the lady at the drive through and she said, "no, that is the medium" and kind of smiled.

now, i've had friends and friends of friends who talk about culture shock upon returning from some extreme type of mission...romania, eastern asia. but london? really?

when i need vitamins in london i walk 2 minutes to the chemist, they ga-ga over olyvia for about 2 minutes...how big she's getting, what's she doing now..then i pick a bottle of vitamins from one of the 4 they sell: prenatal, women's, men's, seniors. and pay. total time spent 5 minutes. i may have to wait behind a couple customers if it's a busy time, so i don't go then :)

how do you handle a monopoly? wal mart is taking over the world, one town at a time...but they have everything i need. should i try to shop at super target??? is that any better? i know that's not exactly supporting a mom and pop business, but they are the only ones with any possibiltiy of competing against wal mart. so, i could at least support a healthy business competition. that has to be better than surrendering to the financial inevitability of wal mart. right? the bible says the more you know the more you are responsible for. so, i think i'll quit thinking about it.

anyway, i better go... i gotta pick up a few things at wal mart :)