The other day I was standing in our pantry, eating cereal straight out of the box, a poor excuse for lunch, trying to motivate to go the gym, finding any excuse to dawdle...so instead of changing into my running shoes, I decided to take stock of what we had. And in doing so I found two boxes of that really good Trader Joe's Indian food that comes in the foil pouch that you just boil and is so so so good! Needless to say I was super excited about this find, but a little too excited, maybe unnaturally so, I mean, it is just boxed food and probably not that good for you. And then it hit me...duh, I didn't pick those up last week in TJ's....we live in crazy Guatemala. This is where I stopped and laughed, what was I thinking?!?!?! We haven't had Indian food in an age...it just doesn't exist here. No walking down the street like in DC and having any ethnic food you desire. And then I was sort of sad about my discovery -- I cannot just whip this up for lunch and devour it all myself, we have obviously been treasuring these 2 boxes like gold, waiting for the most perfect moment to eat them. (Weirdos!)
And then I was struck by another thought, we could maybe one day live in India and would most likely get sick (literally and probably figuratively) of Indian food. Obviously everything is going to change with each new place we go, not rocket science, but funny, this isn't something I often think about and when the thought does creep into my head, it seems so profound! And then the sad realization...we are always going to be hoarding away treasures in our pantry that we never thought we would care about!
Of course we don't need Indian food in a foil pouch, and have found so many new favorites (hello, black beans in a foil pouch??!? I would have never guessed I was a food in a pouch sort of kid....who knew! I can see my mom cringing right now! Don't worry Dolly, we are also eating our veggies!), and most days I like trying everything new, and finding new favorites (I do think this is actually my favorite part and could go on for hours about the fruit and the green markets we get to go to where beautiful produce is sold for pennies), but honestly, and maybe embarrassingly so, somedays I just want to be able to go the Whole Foods. Does that make me a wimp?!?!?
I obviously have a long way to go before conquering this living, not vacationing, abroad business, especially if I keep forgetting where I am....but I don't think Craig or I will ever give up our love of food and drink (both new and exotic and old and familiar)...we just like food and cocktails way too much!
And I think just right now I have decided this is okay....I mean there are some folks out there that won't even try the local fare (even though we have been warned by the locals, we still eat the street food) or spend ridiculous amounts of money trying to get their hands on real ranch dressing (we have also been here -- it is amazing what you will pay for real brown sugar) or even weirder in my opinion, the folks who are so obsessed with going native that they refuse to give in to any indulgence of home, hello it is just ketchup, does not mean you are not taking in the culture! If you cannot tell, this is so beyond bizarre to me. It is like the nerdy American dressed all in native dress (yes that happens too!). So maybe we have found the perfect balance...we can obviously do without if it isn't here, are pretty adventurous eaters (Craig takes the prize here for sure), and we get the best of all worlds (thanks to our US mailing address and Costco in the Guate)! (Don't ever let me try to fool you...we are hardly roughing it!)
I obviously digress so much and cannot keep one single train of thought, but I guess above all I just sort of wanted to capture this funny moment. I feel like these are the things that you never remember. And yes, if you were wondering, this whole dialogue really did go on in my head, while I was standing by myself in the pantry, hand in a cereal box, half dressed for the gym...like a total lunatic.
Also if you are wondering about where we even got the Indian food....I honestly have no idea! Pack out was such a blur, but I vaguely remember going to Trader Joe's before we left, in a last minute panic, buying a bunch of "we can only get it here" stuff, hoping the packers would let us take it with...
And one more thing in case you were curious....we still have not heard where we are going next! I thought for sure we would know in a week....looks like I lost the bet and Craig is holding strong at his 2 week wager!
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