saturday fun page
If you visit another country a lot, what are some things that you always bring back to your homeland? Stuff that's available in one place but not another, or much cheaper somewhere else? My ex-man used to request shipments of metholated Tempo brand tissues and packets of Super Hot Tonkotsu-flavored Nissin Ramen from Hong Kong: Asian marketeers though we were, we never saw that stuff on sale anywhere in the United States. I love to buy a big bottle of purple Palmolive Aromatherapy body wash upon landing in HK; nothing else anywhere is so simultaneously fragrant and cheap that you don't feel guilty about using five full squirts in a single shower.
When ex-roommate Kvetchka went back to Russia, she stuck a whole pineapple in her suitcase.
Melatonin is not over-the-counter in the United Kingdom. Also, one of my British bookers once described the cachet of all-white cigarettes: "In Britain, all cigarettes have yellow filters, so when I pull out an ultra-light Marlboro in London, people are like, 'Ooh, you've been to America!'"
My friend in Slovenia demanded that her American friends ship her some heavy-duty showercaps because she couldn't find any above grocery bag-grade.
In Mexico and Canada (Edit: Canadian commenters have informed me that this ain't true of Canadian coke anymore. Sorry.), Coca Cola is sweetened with sugarcane. In the United States, with corn syrup. My mom brings back a six-pack of the Mexican stuff every time she crosses the border.
Some previous resident of our models' apartment went to Thailand and brought several boxes of Thai bouillon cubes (Knorr brand) back to the apartment. I've been cooking carrots in the Tom Yum-flavored ones and wholeheartedly approve.
Edit: I just took my German male model pal to an import grocery store in Seoul, and he shrieked, "OH MY GOD! GERMAN BEER!", sprinting to the refrigerator and emerging with ten Heinekens clutched to his chest. Ha! Here in the land of Cass and Hite, I guess a Teuton just needs a Heine sometimes.
Second edit: OK, HEINEKEN IS DUTCH! Thanks! I didn't know the provenance of the damn beer; I just believed the German dude. And secondly, my German pal and the German bedroom invader are two different people.