just keep walking, walking, walking....

Going into this trip, I knew that the European way of living was very different than in America. What i was not prepared for was how much my feet would hurt. Walking 20 minutes to each place you want to go seems to be the norm here. The grocery store, our friends house, school clothing store, really any store is a 15 minute walk. The best is going to the grocery store. At home, sometimes trying to carry all the bags just to the car seems to be a endless task. Imagine carrying those same groceries for 15 minutes up a hill, on a sidewalk, and through crowds of people trying to get to where they need to be. Also, in an effort to "be green" customers have to provide their own bags when you go to grocery stores and bag their own food. This would not be a big deal, but it usually takes awhile to bag up all my stuff, and the cashier doesn't start checking out the next person until I get all bagged up. I usually have a very angry Irish native behind me who is so efficient at packing their bags they look at me like a crazy American.  So we usually carry all of our groceries in this one huge bag and our backpacks after spending what seems like 15 minutes to bag up our groceries (really only takes 2 but I'm telling you those stares really put pressure on the situation). Needless to say, I have come to appreciate both baggers in the grocery stores as well as cars SOOOO much.

Another thing I appreciate is my mom's home cooking. I never realized how much effort goes into thinking about what to make for dinner. We have to plan our dinners every week when we go to the grocery store so we don't have to make a ton of trips (if you aren't sure why, read the paragraph above). Our dinners pretty much consist of chicken nuggets, pizza, fries, and these amazing sandwiches that are made right by our house. I'm amazed by how anyone gets any more variety to their diet. I was thinking about a week's dinner at home, and I don't think we repeat any meals for about a month. How my mom does this still baffles me. So for any moms reading this, I have so much more understanding and respect for all the effort that goes into making dinners!